St. Clair Outlasts Sullivan On Friday Night
Sullivan held off the Bulldogs the best they could at home. The offense of St. Clair scored three unanswered touchdowns before Sullivan scored their second touchdown to bridge the gap. The Eagles scored late in the third quarter. Sullivan fell to St. Clair, 27-14.
In the first quarter, Sullivan received the kickoff and Gavin Dace had a great return. Sullivan jumped on the board with the first play of the game. Gabe Dace found his brother Gavin Dace open in the endzone for a twenty yard pass and reception. Sullivan failed the extra point attempt, but was on the board, 6-0. St. Clair got the ball for their first attempt but was denied and went down without a score. The Eagles got the ball and Franky Erxleben started to excel again. Gabe Dace made a spectacular pass to Dominic Ransom to gain positive yards but Sullivan had to punt the ball away on fourth down. St. Clair jumped on the board when Anthony Broeker scored on an outside run. He ran the ball for around forty yards in one drive and tied the game at six a piece. Ransom ran the ball for Sullivan and Head Coach Eddie Haar decided to take a time out to talk with his team at 4:50 on the clock. St. Clair took over on downs but lost the ball on the fumble when Sullivan recovered the loose ball.
In the second quarter, Erxleben kept up the rushing game. Jonathan Martin ran the ball in for a first down. Gabe Dace found his brother for another great five yard pass and brought it to a third down and five. Kayden Bryan ran his way to a first down. The Bulldogs got an offsides called against them and that gave Sullivan a first and five opportunity. Gabe Dace ran the ball in himself to pick up the first down. Coach Haar took another time out with 6:23 left in the first half. When the action resumed, Sullivan was a second down with sixteen to go when St. Clair’s Josh Hawkins intercepted the football to give the Bulldogs the edge. Broeker pulled away for a long run up the middle and after the extra point was good the score was 13-6. Erxleben kept on truckin’ and made another successful first down run. Haar took a timeout with a little over a minute left in the first half. The Bulldogs got the ball back on turnovers and scored again one last time to end the first half. This time St. Clair found Isaac Nunez wide open in the endzone and the score 20-6 after the extra point was good.
In the third quarter, the Bulldogs received the kick off to start the second half. St. Clair had a big run for a first down and that led to another touchdown, with a little over eleven minutes left in the third quarter. The Sullivan defense was getting sick and tired of the Bulldogs scoring on them and came alive. Jordan Rice recorded a sack and Cayden Thacker recorded many tackles to make the Bulldogs more nervous. Dayton Skaggs ran from one side of the field to the other to tackle St. Clair for another loss of yards and Sullivan got the ball back to try to score again. Gabe Dace found Martin down field wide open for an amazing first down pass. Gabe Dace then kept the ball and ran the ball for another Sullivan first down. The Eagles secured another touchdown when Jeremiah Rodriguez ran the ball in the endzone. Gabe Dace found his brother open again in the endzone for a successful two point conversion and the final score was 27-14.
In the fourth quarter, it seemed like Sullivan would score again, but the Bulldogs defense prevented that from happening again. Erxleben had another successful run, but on his next run he fumbled the ball, but recovered it back himself. Gabe Dace kept the ball on the next play and brought it to a fourth down and three to go. Sullivan got the first down when Dace found Bryan open again. The Eagles got another successful fist down on an QB keep by Gabe Dace again. Martin ran the ball for seven yards and brought Sullivan to a third and three opportunity. Coach Haar took a timeout with over five minutes left in the game. The next play Dace kept the ball again and made Sullivan a fourth and five. They picked up the first down when St. Clair was called offsides but Sullivan couldn’t connect on another touchdown.
Gabe Dace three for 149 yards and eight completions. He only had one touchdown and gave up only one interception. Gavin Dace led with 80 yards receiving. He was followed by Martin who had 56 yards.
Erxleben led in rushing yards with 50 but was closely followed by quarterback Gabe Dace with 44. Gavin Dace ran the ball for 17 yards and was followed by Bryan with 11. Rodriguez finished with 10 rushing yards.
Sullivan will face the Pacific Indians this week at homecoming.