‘Special day’ for St. Bede in win over rival Hall

It has been 17 months since the St. Bede football team last stepped on the field.

After a 1-8 record in 2019 and nearly a year and a half wait, the Bruins came back strong Saturday as they absorbed an early blow from rival Hall before taking control of the game en route to a 27-6 victory in a Three Rivers Conference game in Peru.

“They’ve dealt with so much, but they’ve stuck with it,” St. Bede coach Jim Eustice said. “They’re a close knit, great group of kids. I’m so thrilled for them that at least they have this memory because the rest of your life is a long time. They were in danger of not having any senior year memories. Football wise, now to have a homecoming — it wasn’t our normal homecoming but to have it — on a beautiful day like this, this is a special day for us.”

The Bruin’s victory snapped a three-game losing streak against their Route 6 rivals and was St. Bede’s third against Hall in the nine meetings since the rivalry was renewed in 2012.

“It feels so great to get back on the field,” St. Bede quarterback Braden Damerell said. “We had a lot of time to get ready. We wanted to go out there and give it to them and we came out with a W.

“We haven’t beat Hall since I was in high school. It feels so good to win that rivalry game. It feels great right now.”

The Red Devils came out strong as sophomore Mac Resetich came around the left side, slipped through the Bruin defense and raced for a 72-yard score on the fifth play of the game to put Hall of 6-0 after a botched snap on the extra point.

Hall then forced a three-and-out before the Bruins began to settle in.

St. Bede stopped Hall quarterback Gabe Lucas on a sneak on fourth-and-1, then marched 73 yards on 11 plays to take the lead for good when Damerell connected with Tyreke Fortney for a 19-yard touchdown pass. The extra point by Nick Pearse gave St. Bede a 7-6 lead early in the second quarter.

“That was just nerves,” Damerell said about the tough start. “We were really nervous coming out. That (long TD run) kind of woke us up and got us ready for the season and ready for the rest of the game. We got punched in the mouth, but we came back swinging and it was awesome.”

After Resetich’s early score, the Bruins did a better job slowing him down as he finiehd with 115 yards on 11 carries and only had one more run longer than 10 yards.

“He’s only a sophomore, my gosh. What an athlete. He’s the real deal,” Eustice said. “We didn’t have to make any adjustments. We just had kids who were not focused on their jobs. Our defensive end came up too far and got himself trapped and our outside backer on that side didn’t get to where he was supposed to be and he broke it. Once he breaks it, he’s gone. After that, we settled down and executed pretty well the rest of then game.”

After stopping Hall on another fourth-and-short, the Bruins scored again, this time when Damerell tossed a 20-yard pass to Griffen Heuser on second-and-goal from the 20 that put St. Bede ahead 14-6 at halftime.

The Bruins converted a Hall fumble recovered by Logan Link into a 2-yard TD run by Damerell in the third quarter, and St. Bede capped the scoring with an 8-yard touchdown run by Ethan Sramek in the fourth.

Damerell passed for 142 yards and two scores and ran for 32 yards and a TD. Fortney caught five passes for 107 yards and a score and added 22 yards on the ground. Sramek rushed for 60 yards and a score on seven attempts.

“My philosophy is to get your best athletes the ball in space and we did that,” Eustice said. Ty (Fortney) and Timmy (Croissant) are very fast out there. Griffen (Heuser) had the touchdown catch. Braden made a great read on that to hit him. We have Noah (Setesr) who is a nice, shifty little runner. Then we bring in Sramek and he’s a horse. I love our offense. Our offensive line is physical and strong. Braden played well too. Everybody did their job.”

Along with Resetich’s 115 yards, Caleb Savitch ran for 66 yards for Hall while Lucas threw for 78 yards.

“I have to be honest, it’s a numbers game and we knew coming in we needed everybody to make it through the game and unfortunately, we had a couple guys go out in key spots,” first-year Hall coach Nick Guerrini said. “I think we battled back. We had a couple freshmen who had to step into roles they haven’t necessarily been put in before. It’s a young team, that’s what we’re going to have. We’re going to work through it.”