In front of a host of alumni and the homecoming court, St. Francis quarterback Mike Lauck changed his school's record book for the second time this season with 25 completions in a game as the Lancers defeated Archbishop Riordan 48-14.
The Lancers improve to 4-4, (3-2 in the WCAL) as the Crusaders drop to 3-5 (0-5).
Lauck’s 25 completions bests the previous St. Francis school standard of 24 set in 1980. The historic completion was a 28-yard pass to Austin Giubor. He also matched the St. Francis record for passing touchdowns in a game with four, a record he set earlier in the season against Sacred Heart Cathedral.
Lauck finished 25-of-38 for 346 yards and four touchdowns.
The start of the game, however, was nowhere nearly as rosy for St. Francis as Lauck’s stats.
St. Francis defensive coordinator Chris Vasseur fretted about the distractions of homecoming week: “This was the most concerned I was going to be all year because it’s homecoming," he said. "When you have things out of the ordinary in your routine, it always messes with people. We tried to keep everything as similar as we could.”
The distractions prevailed at first, as a bizarre first quarter featured five fumbles, four of which were lost.
The Lancers were sloppy, as running back Devin Hurtado (14 carries, 68 yards, one TD) coughed up the football at the Saint Francis 26 yard line. On the very next play, Riordan backup quarterback Chris Hall took the snap, put his head down, and ran straight up the middle unscathed for a 26-yard touchdown.
On the ensuing drive, the Lancers marched down to the Riordan 12, but this time it was receiver Austin Woodard who fumbled, with the Crusaders recovering.
“We talked all week about coming out and executing, and we found ways to screw it up,” said a frustrated St. Francis coach Nick Navarro. “That’s the reality, and I told them that they can't do that and expect to stay in the game. We can’t turn the ball over and do that against anybody.”
There was controversy as to whether the referee had whistled the play dead before the ball came out, and whether Woodard’s knee was down before he fumbled. Spit was flying and headsets were spiked as the coaches and referees sorted out the mess.
With an opportunity to go up two scores, the Crusaders started driving down the field. A play after Hall and David Gunter had a miscommunication in the backfield resulting in a fumble for a loss, Hall hit Jake Cochrane for what appeared to be a 16-yard gain, but he was hit by a Lancer defender and fumbled. It was as if someone had rubbed Vaseline all over the ball.
Gathering momentum from their defense, the Lancers marched 49 yards after the turnover to score on a 9-yard pass to Woodard. To finish off the first quarter fiasco, Hall fumbled the ball at his team’s own 29 yard line, and the Lancers recovered, with Hurtado eventually punching it in from a yard out. St. Francis never looked back, putting up 48 unanswered points after Riordan’s first touchdown.
The Crusaders scored with 4:22 left in the game when Hall delivered a perfect strike to Joshua Christian. Hall finished with 116 yards and a touchdown through the air, and 18 yards and a touchdown on the ground.
“He’s been our quarterback for three days," Crusader coach Richard Sweeney said. "I’m impressed with him. He threw sharp balls, and he’s a good kid."
Hall was replacing standout sophomore QB Zach Masoli, who was out with an undisclosed injury.
The late quarterback change seemed to caused problems for the St. Francis defense, which only found out about the change about 24 hours before the game.
“The first quarter was hard because they had a new quarterback, and they were doing some different things, stuff we hadn’t prepared for,” Vasseur said. “They utilized his talents pretty well. It took us a while to find answers.”
The Crusaders fought the entire game, but their defense had trouble containing the Lancers, who finished with 481 yards of offense.
Nevertheless, Sweeney was impressed with his team’s effort: “Playing hard, playing together. There’s not any give up in this bunch. We’ve just got to keep working and keep coaching football, and we’ll continue to get better week to week.”
St. Francis suited up 62 players and Riordan 22, which didn't seem to faze the Crusader coach.
“You play with 11, and we’ve just got to keep working to make sure that our 11 on the field are doing what they’re supposed to do,” he said. “Football’s a simple game made complex by coaches. It’s about pad level and getting off on the ball."
The Lancers finish the regular season with games against Mitty and Serra, respectively. They'll need to play more crisply for the entire game to have success.
"It comes to a point where the kids are not doing what we’re asking us to do, and that’s why we were losing our minds a little bit," Navarro said.
The Mitty game has special significance for Navarro since that's his alma mater and he's never beaten the Monarchs.
“I’m excited to play them. They’re a good football team, and they’ve done a good job. I would love to beat my alma mater and take it to them. We can’t make mistakes. It’s probably going to be a fight to the end just like all of our games have been.”
The Crusaders meet Sacred Heart Cathedral in a matchup of teams that are winless in league play.
