Friday afternoon’s Old Dominion Conference matchup between North Cross and St. Anne’s-Belfield began with a steady rain falling.
Although the rains stopped during halftime with the Raiders holding a 3-0 lead, it was an aftermath effect of the wet conditions that turned the game in the third quarter, leading to three straight Saints touchdowns and a 20-9 St. Anne’s win.
Using the rain to their advantage, North Cross had grounded the potent St. Anne’s offense that was expected to produce a high-scoring shootout at Thomas Field.
Both teams came up short in the first quarter. A long St. Anne’s run inside the Raider 5-yard line was called back on a holding penalty that ended a Saints threat, while North Cross passed up a field goal late in the opening frame before failing to convert on fourth down.
Early in the second quarter North Cross drove inside the St. Anne 10-yard line for a first down. But, three plays netted nothing, leading to junior placekicker Brandon Campbell splitting the uprights on a 26-yard field goal that put North Cross up 3-0 with 11:18 left in the quarter.
North Cross made its second excursion inside the St. Anne’s 10 in the final minute of the half, but an unsportsmanlike penalty took the Raiders out of the red zone and time expired, sending the teams to the locker room with the 3-0 tally intact.
The game turned on the first North Cross possession of the third quarter. Facing a fourth down deep in their own territory, a punt snap was muffed due to a wet ball, setting up St. Anne’s with great field position. Several plays later, Brodie Phillips scored on a 5-yard run that put the Saints ahead 7-3 with 6:37 left in the third quarter.
“The dropped snap was huge,” St. Anne’s head coach John Blake said after the game. “It flopped the field for us and we finally got some good field position. Our players got excited.”
North Cross got new life when Davis Call scooped up the ensuing St. Anne’s onside kick, taking it back to the STAB 36-yard line. But, Rob Schotta intercepted Raider quarterback Max Revercomb on the next play, giving the ball back to the Saints.
The St. Anne’s offense began to wear down the Raider defense with a long drive that included two completions for first downs before Deejay Anderson raced 54 yards for a touchdown and 14-3 Saints lead late in the third.
The Saints defense kept the Raider offense in check throughout most of the fourth quarter.
St. Anne’s erased any designs of a late North Cross comeback when Saints quarterback Lee Parkhill connected on a 58-yard scoring bomb to 6’4″ wide receiver Jalen Harrison with just under four minutes left in the game, putting the Saints up 20-3.
North Cross took only 40 seconds to score their only touchdown of the afternoon when junior Jordan Lowery hauled in a 29-yard strike from Revercomb that made it 20-9.
But, it was too little, too late, and St. Anne’s ran out the clock.
“We weren’t good offensively in the third quarter,” Raider head coach Stephen Alexander noted afterward. “We just didn’t execute. St.Anne’s has some great athletes over there. They were playing the pass which showed the respect they had for Max all day.”
“It was a wet, sloppy game and a wet ball on the punt snap that was critical,” Alexander added. “It’s tough when that happens against a good opponent.”
“Give North Cross credit,” Blake pointed out. “They were focused and it took us a while to get our offense going. Our defense has been good all year, but we hadn’t played in this hard of a football game all year.”
– Bill Turner