The Jr. Bills once again failed to capture a coveted Running of the Bills victory last Friday as they fell to the St. Mary’s Dragons in a rather lopsided opening contest. In addition to injuries and some offensive shortcomings, the Jr. Bills had to contend with the Dragons’ powerful rushing attack. 

St. Mary’s offensive strategy was evident from the beginning; to pound the ball on the ground. Three-star Mizzou commit Jamal Roberts finished the game with 229 rushing yards on 13 carries. 

The first possession consisted of 6 runs and no passes and ended with a touchdown for the Dragons on a 12-yard pitch play to senior wide receiver Chase Hendricks. A carry and two point conversion by St. Mary’s had set the tone early; this would be no cakewalk. 

“We definitely need to improve on our tackling,” said Cruz. “But at the same time Jamal Roberts is going to Missouri for a reason. We’re going to see a lot more top level talent so we need to prepare.”

The first drive by the Jr. Bills was uneventful as they went three and out. At first, St. Mary’s seemed to not have the same juice as their first drive.The Jr. Bills made some big stops and got the Dragons a third and 10. Disaster struck as St. Mary’s brought out some trickery, handing the ball off to Roberts who pitched it back to Hendricks. The redirection fooled the defense as Hendricks pranced into the end zone on a 45-yard run to make the score 14-0.

“I do think that early on the nerves really got to us,” said Cruz. “Once we settled in we started playing really well, but there were just too many mistakes throughout.”

The rest of the first half saw the Jr. Bills fail to take advantage of some good opportunities; they only came away with just a field goal in three trips to the red zone. With two more St. Mary's scores, SLUH went into halftime down 28-7.

“The more I watched the game (film) the better I felt about it because we did have opportunities,” said head coach Adam Cruz. “After their first two scores we had three separate trips to the red zone and had opportunities to really make some plays but only came away with three points. There were periods of time that we played well, but they did what state champions do: capitalize.”.

After short possessions by both teams to start the second half, the Jr. Bills finally got rolling. Junior wide receiver Joseph Harris had a spectacular diving catch to start the drive, followed by a great run up the middle by senior running back Kam Bailey. After another St. Mary’s penalty, junior quarterback Marco Sansone scrambled around the pocket before escaping and finding Ryan Wingo over the top for a dramatic 45-yard touchdown. This score marked SLUH’s first and only touchdown of the game and showed the high-flying capabilities of this year's offense.

After the Jr. Bills’ touchdown, St. Mary’s rallied back to score two more touchdowns before the end of the third quarter, and the game ended with that 42-10 score.

Sansone and the rest of the offensive struggled all game to get into their groove as they gave up three turnovers to a ferocious Dragons defense. The Jr. Bills have a lot to improve on as the team is concentrating on moving on and preparing for Friday night’s game.

“It’s a great game to grow off of,” said senior Matt Barnes. “We learned a lot and we look forward to building off of our mistakes versus Timberland and just playing sharper.”

“We didn’t play great,” said senior Dillon Ramella. “But we are concerned about Timberland, not St. Mary’s.”

With multiple injuries throughout, the Jr. Bills championed the next man up mentality throughout Friday night’s affair. Key players on both sides of the ball, junior Jacobi Oliphant and sophomore Landon Pace both came out due to injury in the first quarter which led to adjustments and valuable experience for other players.

“Hopefully this week when adversity strikes we’ll have guys a little bit more ready to go,” said Cruz.

The Jr. Bills look to rebound tonight against Timberland, who enjoyed a 58-14 victory over Liberty last week. The Wolves are led by senior dual-threat quarterback AJ Raines, who passed for two touchdowns and 213 yards and rushed for 119 yards and one touchdown. SLUH will need to refocus quickly as Timberland poses to be another challenging outing.