St. Xavier and St. Francis Engage in a Surprising Too-Close-To-Call Match Up

St. Francis Football Team - Image Courtesy from The Times Weekly

As Saturday’s game was on the line, St. Xavier’s defensive end Jesse Gonzales drew inspiration from another sport.

“Every Thursday in practice, we do what we call volleyball drills,” Gonzales said. “We have competitions batting down the ball. I don’t have the best hands, but I do ok.”

Being a senior out of Eisenhower, Gonzales looked like a volleyball player making a kill when he leaped to knock-down a late fourth-down pass and sealed in the end a close-to-call 30-28 Mid-States Football Association Midwest League victory over St. Francis at Joliet Memorial Stadium.

St. Francis had good momentum at the start of the game and challenged the Cougars to a serious formidable match-up. But that all changed half way through the game, when the Cougars started to make a strong comeback to eventually claim victory by a close margin.

St. Xavier is ranked at number 10 in the NAIA (National Association of intercollegiate Athletics), and was able to run out the final 2:25 to take the sole possession of first place in the Midwest League. Gonzales’ play was the star of the show on a prominent day for St. Xavier’s defense, which was able to recover three fumbles.

“We feel like we have the best defense in the conference and a top-ten defense in the country, so we were confident we could make the plays we needed to and finish this game,” Gonzales said.

Just over two minutes before the fourth-down stand, St. Xavier’s Danny Saracco blocked Grayson Barnette’s attempt at a go-ahead 43-yard field goal.

“I wasn’t even supposed to rush the kick,” Saracco said. “I’m supposed to stay just back in the middle, but I knew I had to go for it. We needed to make a play.”

Eventually close to the end of the game, St. Francis fought back to take a 28-27 lead as Ellis threw a two-yard touchdown pass to Alex Zlomie and a 5-yarder to Brandon Ruffin. Ruffin was able to catch a total of seven passes for 133 yards and two touchdowns. Zlomie also returned an interception 50 yards for a touchdown to open more the scoring. But in the end, St. Xavier sealed officially a victory. St. Francis’s coach had this to say in an interview with a Chicago Tribune reporter.

“We put ourselves in a hole with those fumbles,” St. Francis coach Joe Curry said. “Our kids fought and we almost overcame those, but you can’t do that against a top-10 team and expect to win.”