BATAVIA – The date was circled.

St. Charles East came into Batavia with a target on its back after not only ending the Bulldogs’ long Upstate Eight Conference River Division winning streak last season, but also winning a conference championship that had become a common occurrence for the Bulldogs’ football program.

Batavia wasn’t going to let East do it this season, especially on its senior night, shutting out a strong triple-option attack 7-0 Friday night.

East was held to just 131 yards of total offense, including a season-low 97 yards on the ground.

“This was a huge game for us,” junior linebacker Michael Jansey said. “(It took) long hours and long practices. (We) scouted for hours and hours this week and it was really successful.”

Batavia (5-0, 3-0 UEC River) was also aided by the fact that East quarterback Clayton Isbell was visibly not 100-percent healthy after suffering an ankle injury in the Saints’ overtime loss to St. Charles North a week ago.

After rushing for over 200 yards in a win over Geneva two weeks prior, Isbell was held to minus-four yards on the ground on just six carries – the last of which he was sacked on fourth and long to clinch a victory for the Bulldogs.

East (3-2, 1-2) gave it self a chance after consecutive defensive stops inside the five-yard line. After Batavia backup quarterback Jack Meyers fumbled on a 4th-and-goal from the one-yard line with just over nine minutes to play – recovered by East’s Abe Swanson – the Saints got another stop when Bulldogs’ kicker Jack Carlson misfired on a 21-yard field goal attempt with 3:57 left.

But after Isbell completed his only pass of the game – a 34-yard catch and run for Ronan Macaluso – the Saints’ drive stalled at Batavia’s 31-yard line as Isbell was sacked by a swarm of Bulldogs.

“It’s just awesome. All the work we put in over the last two-to-three weeks just helped so much,” said Batavia senior cornerback Tom Stuttle, who had his third interception of the season Friday night. “We’re a team out here…no one plays for themselves, we play for the team. St. Charles East is a great team, but this was our game tonight.”

The game’s only score came just before halftime when Batavia coach Dennis Piron elected to go for a 4th-and-5 on the East 45-yard line. Quarterback Riley Cooper found tight end Collin Richter for a 25-yard gain before dumping a screen pass off to running back Art Taylor for a 15-yard score.

That proved to be all the points the Bulldogs needed as East could not develop much rhythm offensively, despite a strong effort from its defense.

“Our defense played lights out tonight,” East coach Bryce Farquhar said. “We made two mistakes and Batavia did a good job of capitalizing. I’m very proud of the way our defense played. (Batavia) is a deep playoff team over there and I feel like we played them really well. We need to get healthy and we’ll see where we can go from there.”

The Saints were also troubled by a few penalty calls that took away big plays. Macaluso broke off a 45-yard touchdown that appeared to tie the game with 5:11 to go in the third quarter. Instead, a holding penalty eventually forced the Saints to punt.

But, once again, the defense made a play as Cooper was intercepted by Nick Garlisch deep in Saints territory. East finished with nine penalties that totaled 76 yards.

The combination of an injured quarterback with the offense started deep in its own territory smelled trouble for a hungry Batavia defense.

“The challenge that these kids took upon themselves was pretty awesome,” Piron said. “We’ve done that all year. People just simply haven’t been able to run the ball against us. They fill gaps, they’re tough up from, they move, they fly… (Defensive Coordinator Matt Holm) and all of our coaches do a terrific job coming up with a game plan and executed it great. I think we were just frustrated we score couldn’t score more points, offensively.”

Justin Jett led East with 72 yards on 15 carries while Reggie Phillips led a the Bulldogs with 67 yards. Cooper finished the game 14-for-20 for 148 yards and a touchdown, while Isbell completed just one of four attempts with an interception.

Batavia will look to stay atop the UEC River with a rivalry matchup at Geneva next weekend while the Saints look to bounce back from two straight losses heading on the road to play Bartlett.

BATAVIA 7, ST. CHARLES EAST 0

Batavia 0 7 0 0 – 7

STC East 0 0 0 0 – 0

HOW THEY SCORED

First quarter

No scoring.

Second quarter

BAT– Taylor 15 pass from Cooper (Carlson kick), 1:09.

Third quarter

No scoring.

Fourth quarter

No scoring.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING– St. Charles East: Jett 15-72, Garlisch 6-20, Macaluso 7-10, Gearhart 1-minus-1, Isbell 6-minus-4. Totals: 35-97. Batavia: Phillips 13-67, Meyers 2-23, Evers 10-18, Taylor 5-16, Martin 1-6, Green 2-6, Cooper 5-3, Team: 2-minus-6. Totals: 40-133.

PASSING– St. Charles East: Isbell 1-4-1-34. Batavia: Cooper 14-20-1-148, Martin 1-1-0-24.

RECEIVING– St. Charles East: Macaluso 1-34. Batavia: Richter 4-55, Green 2-36, Peterson 2-29, Stuttle 3-29, Taylor 3-22, Martin 1-2.

TOTAL TEAM YARDS: St. Charles East: 131, Batavia 305.