Bees defense swarms after break in victory

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By Steve Batterson | Saturday, October 4, 2008 8:02 PM CDT | () comments

In a game that was there for the taking Saturday, St. Ambrose took it.

The 16th-ranked Fighting Bees forced seven turnovers Saturday, including five that helped St. Ambrose pitch a second-half shutout in its

34-16 victory over 18th-ranked St. Francis (Ill.) in the Mid-States Football Association opener for both teams.

After watching the Saints hang around throughout the opening two quarters, the Fighting Bees dominated defensively after the break to pull away from a 21-16 halftime edge.

“I don’t know what it is. We seem to need to go in at the half and get everything straightened out, but once we adjust, we get it done. We played defense the way we’re capable of playing it after the half,” St. Ambrose linebacker Hank Belshause said.

“We got stops, we created turnovers. Those are the things we take in doing and after finding ourselves in a couple of tough spots in the first half, we were able to respond and play our game.’’

That didn’t bode well for the Saints, who lost for the first time in five games this season and had a six-game winning streak end.

St. Ambrose used fumble recoveries by Vince Fillipp and Zach Hughes and interceptions from Colin Green, PJ Conroy and Hughes after the break to deny St. Francis.

However, the Fighting Bees managed only 22- and 27-yard field goals by Scott Langel and a 43-yard Will Ducey-to-Michael Hayward touchdown pass after the break.

“We beat a good football team, and our defense did a great job of creating turnovers, but the expectations we have for our team are high and we didn’t get the most out of those turnovers,” St. Ambrose coach Mike Magistrelli said.

“We left some points on the field because we didn’t execute consistently at a high enough rate in the second half, and that was a little disappointing. We settled for field goals too often instead of getting touchdowns.”

The Saints didn’t allow the Fighting Bees (3-2, 1-0 MSFA) to get their ground game going, limiting St. Ambrose to 72 rushing yards including 41 on a first-quarter touchdown run by Mike LaRocco.

Starting tailback Brennan McCarron did leave the game in the first quarter with a calf injury, but Magistrelli expected better balance.

“Part of it was that St. Francis played a 3-4 defense it hadn’t shown on film,” Magistrelli said. “That was all we had seen from people, but we didn’t prepare for it because we expected a 3-3 stack. It took us some time to adjust.”

Quarterback Will Ducey was able to move the Bees’ offense through the air, completing 24 of 43 passes for 354 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions.

Kyle Korth and Michael Hayward combined for 319 receiving yards.

Steve Batterson can be contacted at (563) 383-2290 or sbatterson@qctimes.com.