St. Al celebrates with waltz past W. Lincoln
Published 6:00 pm Sunday, October 31, 2010
VICKSBURG — Playing before a crowd of 2,000 alumni and fans tocelebrate the 150th anniversary of Catholic education in Vicksburg,St. Aloysius rolled to a 40-12 Friday night win over winless WestLincoln.
For seniors Matt Wooten, Shelton Headley and Ford Biedenharn, thewin was a great way to finish their final game at Balzli Field. TheFlashes improve to 4-6 overall and 2-4 in Region 4-1A going intonext week’s season ender at Sebastopol.
“We didn’t let all the celebration stuff get to us,” Biedenharnsaid. “After last week’s loss, we needed to come out and playwell.”
Biedenharn did a little bit of everything for the Flashes. Hescored two touchdowns on runs of 26 and 25 yards. He completed a15-yard pass to Headley and then caught a 12-yard pass fromfreshman Carlisle Koestler.
“I used to be a wide receiver, so it was fun to go out and catch apass,” Biedenharn said. “It felt good to be able to do somedifferent things.”
Headley was glad to see the seniors shine on such a big stage asthe school honored teams and athletes the last 60 years ofathletics before the game and at halftime.
“This was our last home game and it seemed like every senior got ascore,” Headley said. “Then we were able to get our younger guys inthe game.”
Headley was one of four seniors to score. He caught a 20-yard TDpass from Koestler with 10.8 seconds left in the firstquarter.
St. Al built a 34-0 halftime lead. Carlton Campbell scored first ona 14-yard run after the Bears (0-10, 0-6) fumbled away their firstpossession at the Flashes 20.
Following an exchange of fumbles, St. Al took advantage of a14-yard loss on a dropped punt snap to score on Biedenharn’s26-yard run. Blake Hudson’s kick made it 14-0 with 2:47 left in thefirst quarter.
On their next possession, the Flashes took to the air. Koestlercompleted a pair of passes for 47 yards and the last, a 20-yarder,went to Headley to make it 21-0 after Hudson’s PAT.
Biedenharn added his second touchdown run three minutes deep intothe second quarter and Mac Jones closed out the first-half scoringwith a 36-yard TD run with 1:27 left for a 34-0 lead.
Flashes coach B.J. Smithhart cleared his bench to start the thirdquarter and the Bears were able to take advantage, going 89 yardsin six plays. Alston Bozeman scored on a 12-yard run to make it34-6.
The Flashes’ reserves fumbled on two possessions, but the Bearscould only capitalize on one of the turnovers. A 34-yard run byBozeman set up Deon Moore’s 1-yard TD run. Moore finished with 154yards on 25 carries.
St. Al closed out the scoring on Barrett Teller’s 5-yard run with10:33 left in the game to make it 40-12.
Smithhart liked how his team responded despite losing fourfumbles.
“We had a great crowd and that fired up the guys,” Smithhart said.”The kids played hard. We had the two turnovers in the first halfand two more by the younger guys, but they worked hard and it wasgood to get our eighth and ninth-grade guys out there.”
The Flashes outgained the Bears 303 yards to 229. Jones rushed for84 yards on six carries. Biedenharn added 77 yards on the groundand Teller had 53.