Published: October 12, 2008 12:03 am            

Sacred Heart stops St. Francis

LORETTO — A glance at the final stat sheet was misleading: St. Francis 375 total yards, Sacred Heart 363.

Unfortunately for the Red Flash, the stats did not tell the story of Saturday afternoon’s Northeast Conference game at DeGol Field.

Undefeated Sacred Heart (6-0, 2-0) excelled on special teams, made fewer mental and physical mistakes, and earned its sixth consecutive win with a 41-24 victory over the Red Flash.

Sacred Heart coach Paul Gorham explained what made a difference.

“Special teams and turnovers,” he said. “We’ve been feeding off turnovers all year, and we were able to get a few of those. The kickoff returns are good in getting us the short field, and we were able to punt them down and make them go 99 yards.”

Sacred Heart used a 45-yard field goal from Joe Schroeder to take a 3-0 lead with 5:18 left in the first quarter. Schroeder’s kicks, along with some untimely Red Flash penalties, resulted in St. Francis (0-5, 0-3) starting drives on its 17-, 10-, and 20-yard lines in the first quarter.

The Pioneers used the passing of sophomore quarterback Dale Fink to take a 17-10 halftime advantage. Fink completed 20 of 31 passes for 214 yards and four touchdowns.

Much of the Red Flash’s problems on defense resulted from younger players being inserted for a large number who have been injured.

“I thought that we came out with a good focus initially, but we have a lot of young guys out here playing right now,” St. Francis coach Dave Opfar said. “There’s a lot of frustration right now by all of us. We all are very competitive, and we want to be very good. We need to circle the wagons and look at these young kids and give some people some chances and see what they can do to help the program.”

The Pioneers built the halftime lead to 24-10 when Steve Tedesco caught a 4-yard pass from Fink with 10:55 left in the third quarter.

The Red Flash responded, with quarterback George Little directing a seven-play, 84-yard scoring drive. Little hit tight end Ryan Zarnich over the middle with a 12-yard scoring pass. Zak Campbell’s extra point narrowed the lead to 24-17 at the 6:57 mark of the third quarter.

The Pioneers scored 17 points in the fourth quarter to put the game out of reach.

St. Francis put together a final drive as redshirt freshman quarterback Colton Sipe directed a seven-play, 64-yard score, with Calvin Williams scoring on a 2-yard option play.

        

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