Fighting Bees
Victorious, Avenge Last Seasons Loss
By: Ryan Holtmann
CHICAGO – Why not mix things up?
That is exactly what the Saint Xavier Cougars did last season to
the St. Ambrose Fighting Bees.
This year it was payback time, as
the Fighting Bees knocked off the Cougars 43-31, creating all kinds of
havoc in the MSFA Midwest League.
Last season the Fighting Bees were
cruising along the Midwest league when the Cougars entered Brady St.
Stadium and knocked off the Bees 24-20, creating a mess atop the Midwest
league.
The tables were turned this season
as the Bees have struggled a little bit, while the Cougars have been
cruising along and sitting atop the league undefeated in conference play.
With the Bees only having a
mathematical chance to get into the playoffs and win the MSFA Midwest for
the fourth consecutive year, they were playing the role of the spoiler.
And spoil they did, as they
capitalized on three Cougars turnovers, scoring 20 points to gain their
third conference victory of the year and really mixing things up atop the
conference standings.
“This is huge, a big win,”
Fighting Bees head coach Todd Sturdy said overjoyed following the victory.
“It is one of the biggest wins we have had in the past three
years.”
Fighting Bees running back Joe
Schimmel continued his streak of consecutive games with 100-plus rushing
yards. He had 23 carries for
180 yards and two touchdowns to make it eight straight games with over 100
rushing yards.
Schimmel also went over the century
mark for the season and now sits at 1,176 yards for the season.
The Bees jumped out to a quick 23-3
lead, large in part to a solid game plan.
Usually the Bees look to the ground
game to open things up, but that was not the case on Saturday, going to
the air on their first six of nine plays from scrimmage.
The passing game worked effectively
allowing the Fighting Bees to move the ball with ease on the Cougars
defense.
“I think we caught them off guard
a little bit and had them running,” Sturdy said of mixing things up
throwing the ball on the first few plays.
The Fighting Bees entered halftime
with a convincing 23-10 lead.
Coming out of halftime the Bees
added to their lead when the Bees went for it on fourth and two at the
Cougars 39-yard line.
Stacked up against the run the
Cougars were caught off guard when Bees wide receiver Chris Burhans went
out for a pass, and was left wide open for a 39-yard reception for a
touchdown.
The Bees led 30-10 with just over
11 minutes to go in the third quarter.
After that score, the offense and the defense went flat.
The offense failed to move the ball
and committed costly turnovers and the defense had trouble stopping the
Cougars attack.
Next thing St. Ambrose knew, they
were trailing 31-30 after the Cougars Jonathan Dole scooped up quarterback
Jeff Kietzman’s fumble, returning it 44 yards for the game tying score.
Brad Sheehan kicked the extra point to give the Cougars the lead
going into the final frame.
That is when it got exciting.
In the games final 15 minutes, the Fighting Bees missed a go-ahead
field goal, converted three third down conversions, stopped the Cougars on
two fourth down conversions and forced a fumble.
The fumble led to a ten play,
39-yard drive ending with Kietzman firing a six-yard bullet two feet over
the head of Ford, who leapt as high as he could to snag the touchdown
score.
“I didn’t think that I was
going to be able to get up there and catch that,” Ford said with a
smile. “Luckily he put it
in a place where I could get to it.”
Sturdy just stood in astonishment
when asked about Ford’s touchdown grab.
“Andy makes some catches that are
just unbelievable,” Sturdy said. “He
is a very talented young man who made a spectacular catch.
The Bees later added the insurance
score when Schimmel went untouched for a 26-yard score.
“They celebrated pretty hard last
year at Brady Street Stadium after the win and that stuck in our minds,”
Schimmel said.
The loss was the first
in two years for the Cougars at home.
The last time the Cougars lost was in 2001 to the same team they
lost to on Saturday. The
Fighting Bees came out of Cougar Stadium with a 33-28 victory that year.
“I told our kids that
the only way that you can win a game like that is all about character and
people,” Sturdy said. “The
kids hung in there and didn’t give up.
“We wanted that one,
really, really bad.”
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