Red Raiders Rebuff Marauders, Advance To MMAA Title Game

A month ago, the St. Francis Red Raiders and St. Joe’s Marauders met in an epic shootout, with the Marauders emerging victorious 43-41.

This time, the stakes were higher. And the Red Raiders exacted revenge.

By winning 42-29 over the Marauders (5-5), St. Francis (5-6) clinched a berth in the Monsignor Martin championship game to be held next week against Canisius at UB Stadium, and, according to coach Jerry Smith, took one step closer to achieving their goal to become a true team.

“To be honest with you, we don’t chase wins. The kids know that. If, at the end of the day, we can show how much we love each other, then we’ll win ball games,” Smith said. “Love conquers all. If a guy makes a mistake, everyone else should rally around him and pick him up.

That’s what these guys are fighting for. They’re fighting for the relationships with each other, and we ended up putting points on the board as a result.”

Senior safety Dan Browning, who recorded three interceptions and a fumble recovery, relished the opportunity to close the season out with a title.

“It was a great performance by everyone on our team,” Browning said. “Next week against Canisius will be a challenge, but hopefully we’ll beat them.”

Early in the first quarter, each team traded scores on Browning’s fumble recovery and a quarterback keeper by Micah Brown. But a trend began to emerge shortly thereafter for the Marauders – that being the victim of blown opportunities and turnovers.

After forcing a fumble within Francis territory, the Marauders recovered and moved the ball down to the one-yard line. However, a botched handoff forced the Marauders to settle for a field goal attempt from the 16-yard line instead, and it was promptly missed wide of the post.

On their next drive, a holding penalty pushed the Marauders back to the 24-yard line – out of the red zone area in which they were originally in. Then, after getting back to within two yards, they were stopped short on fourth down. The trend continued into the next quarter as well as Browning picked off Brown in the end zone.

Following each team trading touchdowns – via a quarterback sneak by Jake Ritts and a 66-yard score by Anthony McCarley on a screen pass – the Marauders shot themselves in the foot again when they could have forced a field goal try after a sack on third down, but the sack was wiped out due to a penalty. Instead, Ritts found Dominic Thomas in the corner of the end zone from 12 yards out, giving the Red Raiders a 22-14 lead going into halftime.

The Marauders’ woes continued at the start of the second half, as they fumbled on the ensuing kickoff and St. Francis recovered. Luckily for them, their opponent didn’t score, and as they regained possession, the Marauders decided to go for a fake punt near midfield on fourth down. It worked – breathing new life into the team as a result.

A scary scene occurred shortly thereafter, however, as freshman running back Jimmy Scott received a hard hit and had to be taken off on a stretcher in an ambulance. At press time, according to his father, Scott was doing ok and tests came back negative.

After that play, St. Joe’s got a jolt in the arm while wanting to play for their fallen teammate – and so did St. Francis.

“We got our guys together and we told them that they may be our opponents, but prayer does a lot of good things,” Smith said. “So we took a knee and said a prayer for Scott to be healthy.

“At the end of the day, this is a game. We don’t want anyone injured in that capacity. You get banged up and stuff, that’s football’s so-called ‘badge of honor’. But we don’t want to see anyone carted off. After that, I think both teams turned it up a notch – which is a testament to honoring the game. This game isn’t for everybody – that’s why people who play this game are special.”

Sam Kline hauled in a 24-yard touchdown pass and then intercepted Ritts on St. Francis’ next drive. Brown promptly reached paydirt on an 18-yard run, giving his team their last lead of the day 29-22. It wouldn’t last though, as Xavier Janczylik took a pass and outran everyone to the end zone from 81 yards out, putting the Red Raiders on top for good.

The Marauders had two more chances to come back, but Brown was picked off by Browning on St. Joe’s next two drives – culminating in Janczylik racking up his second and third rushing tallies of the day from 49 and 77 yards out, respectively.

“Three interceptions and a fumble for a touchdown by Browning… you’ve got to be kidding me,” Smith said. “He was pretty good today, to say the least.”

Next week will be the defining game of the Red Raiders’ season, and Smith was looking forward to not just beating Canisius, but also settling a score from a loss to the Crusaders a few weeks earlier.

“It’s nice to get back to the title game, and we’ll see what happens,” Smith said. “Canisius is a very good team and has pretty much been the premier program here for the last several years. This time, hopefully, we’ll get them back.”