St. Bede overcomes injuries, holds off Erie-Prophetstown

ERIE – The St. Bede football team came into Thursday’s game without two-way starter Ethan Sramek.

During the game, the Bruins had several other key players go down with injuries, including Tim Croissant, Nolan May and Rylan Heersink.

But St. Bede made the necessary substitutions and adjustments – including Joe Edwall moving from guard to tackle, Brandon Green stepping in at guard and a platoon handling nose guard – and held on to edge Erie-Prophetstown, 24-21, in a Three Rivers Conference game.

“We had some adversity,” St. Bede senior quarterback/defensive back Braden Damerell said. “We had a few guys go down, but next man up. In practice, everyone gets a lot of reps at different positions for this moment. We’re prepared. It was a great team win.”

The game was tied at halftime and the Panthers had momentum going into the break after scoring on a 40-yard touchdown pass from Kolby Franks to Trevor Cobo with only 3.5 seconds left.

But St. Bede quickly regained momentum in the second half.

The Bruins held E-P to a three-and-out then retook the lead.

St. Bede marched 65 yards on nine plays on five runs by Damerell and passes to Tyreke Fortney and Luke Story before Noah Setser took it into the end zone from a yard out with 6:46 left in the third.

The teams traded interceptions before a 10-play E-P drive – which was aided by a pass interference call on a third-and-14 – ended on a dropped pass on fourth-and-5 from the St. Bede 26-yard line.

The Bruins then made it a two-score game.

St. Bede drove down and had first-and-goal from the 6.

The Bruins ran on three straight plays but were kept out of the end zone and faced fourth-and-1.

Nick Pearse booted an 18-yard field goal to put the Bruins ahead 24-14 with 3:52 left.

“We had a couple big completions and got it down to third-and-1,” St. Bede coach Jim Eustice said. “We were eating clock. We were hoping to push it across on third down. We ran the clock down and called timeout.

“With (Pearse), that’s even shorter than an extra point, so we were pretty confident we could get it to two scores there. Thank goodness we did.”

The Panthers rallied with a quick touchdown as Franks hit Cobo for a 52-yard completion to give the Panthers first-and-goal from the 7.

Connor Sibley took a handoff and ran it toward the end zone. He fumbled but it was recovered by E-P for a TD with 1:35 left.

“I think we just let our kids be athletes,” E-P coach Jesse Abbott said about the Panthers’ quick scores to end the first half and near the end of the game. “We tried not to limit them too much. We let them get out there and play free. We let Kolby run around a little bit and throw it. Kolby did a good job finding guys. Our receivers made plays. We can strike quick. It’s those sustained drives that get us sometimes.

“I thought we were pretty evenly matched, but when it came down to it they were able to beat us on some one-on-one plays. That’s football sometimes.”

After Fortney scooped up E-P’s squib kick, the Bruins made a first down on a 27-yard pass from Damerell to Fortney to ice the game.

“It was buckling down,” Damerell said about St. Bede’s second-half drives. “Our offensive line was in way better shape than their defensive line and that pays off. It was kind of power football. We got a first down when we needed it.”

Damerell finished with 102 rushing yards and 129 passing yards on 8-of-15 passing.

Luke Story scored St. Bede’s first touchdown on a 1-yard run with 53.3 seconds left in the first quarter, while Fortney ran for a 20-yard TD with 1:30 left in the first half. Fortney finished with 26 rushing yards and 68 receiving yards.

“(Me running a lot) was not the plan, but that’s the defense they gave us,” Damerell said. “I knew I was getting matched up against a linebacker. We had me rolling out after play action. That’s where I got most of my rushing yards. The receivers did great. The offensive line did awesome.”

The Panthers had a strong start to the game as they stopped Story for a 3-yard loss on fourth-and-1 then drove 54 yards on four plays, capping the drive on a 6-yard TD run by Franks for a 7-0 lead.

“I thought we started well then went into a lull for a little while,” Abbott said. “We kind of got complacent. (The score before half) got us back in the game.”

Franks finished with 130 passing yards and 54 rushing yards. Sibley ran for 60 yards and Jakob Grunder had 52 yards on the ground. Cobo caught three passes for 102 yards.

St. Bede (3-0) travels to Newman (2-0) in Week 4, while E-P (0-2) plays at Bureau Valley (0-1).