St. Dom Wears Down Warrenton For Friday Night Football Win

After seven fairly comfortable wins to start the 2011 season, the St. Dominic High football team had to endure a less enjoyable experience in its Class 4 District 8 opener against Warrenton (MO) High School Friday night at Crusader Stadium.

The Crusaders managed to win the game, 14-0, over the visiting Warriors, but almost nothing felt comfortable about it—not even when St. Dominic scored in the final minutes to take a touchdown lead.

“They’ve got a real good team,” St. Dominic head coach Jim Cook said. “They’ve got a lot of speed and they can throw the ball around real good.”

And because of that ability to move the ball in big chunks through the passing game, and the fact that St. Dom hasn’t faced many opponents that play that way, Cook was concerned about his team’s ability to counteract that attack.

“We (had) to have a real good defensive effort tonight,” Cook said. “We have to be real sound in what we’re doing, because that quarterback’s got a real good arm and a quick release. They can score some points on you.”

Fortunately for St. Dominic, the Crusader “D” was up to the challenge, holding the Warriors scoreless for the entire game, while sacking talented Warrenton quarterback T.J. LaFaver six times and forcing four turnovers.

On offense, St. Dom didn’t dominate with its ground game like it had previously this season, but the Crusaders were able to get just enough done to allow junior Jake Wilmes and senior Grant Nickles a couple of chances to punch the ball in and give the home team the lead.

Wilmes got the Crusaders on the board late in the third quarter with an 8-yard run off right tackle. That, along with placekicker Brian Baker’s extra point, made the score 7-0.

That gave St. Dom a bit of breathing room, but not much, as Warrenton continued to attack downfield.

The Crusader “D”  was there at every turn and kept Warrenton from ever really reaching reasonable scoring distance.

In fact, Warrenton was only able to cross midfield three times and only reached the St. Dom red zone twice.

“Defensively, we (knew) we had to stop the big play,” Cook said. “Like I said, they’ve got some good speed over there and we just couldn’t afford to let any of them get loose.”

Nickles finally put the game away for St. Dom when he scored on a 5-yard run with just under two minutes left in the game.

The victory gave the Crusaders their first district win, and keeps them on pace with 8-0 St. Francis Borgia High, which also won its district opener 28-21 over St. Charles West.

Borgia will host Warrenton next Friday night in Washington, MO, in a game that would eliminate the 2010 Class 4 state championship runner-up Warriors from state playoff contention this year.

St. Dom will play at St. Charles West next week, in a critical game for the West, which is in the same boat as Warrenton—lose and kiss the playoffs goodbye.

A victory for both St. Dom and Borgia next week would set up a winner-take-all district championship game in two weeks between the Crusaders and Knights on Thurs., Oct. 27 at Crusader Stadium.

The winner of that contest would have home-field advantage in the first round of the playoffs, while the loser would have to go on the road and face Class 4 District 7 winner in the first round.

Scoring Summary

Score by Quarters

F

Warrenton

0

0

0

0

0

St. Dominic

0

0

7

7

14

Third Quarter

SD: Jake Wilmes 8 yd run (Brian Baker kick), 3:14

Fourth Quarter

SD: Grant Nickles 5 yd run (Brian Baker kick), 1:11