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DAVENPORT, Iowa -- Saint Xavier might want to seriously consider moving their home stadium to Brady Street Stadium. In their past two trips to the AstroTurf field, they have walked away with two exciting upset victories over the actual home team -- the St. Ambrose Fighting Bees. The Cougars got their second win in as many trips to Davenport, Iowa, when quarterback John Perryman hit receiver Chris Rodriguez from 27 yards out with 28 seconds remaining in the game to put Saint Xavier up 27-23. The play came just two plays after it seemed as if the Fighting Bees were on their way to their seventh win of the season. The Fighting Bees took over on downs with 1:38 remaining in the game, after Saint Xavier elected to go for it on fourth down trailing 23-20. At first the Cougars sent out their field goal team, but called a timeout and elected to go for it on fourth-and-4 from the St. Ambrose 23-yard line. Perryman's pass fell incomplete and the Fighting Bees took over. St. Ambrose running back Joe Schimmel had an 8-yard run after an unsportsmanlike conduct call on the Cougars sideline pushing the ball to the St. Ambrose 47-yard line. Saint Xavier used their final timeout to stop the clock. Facing a second-and-2, the Fighting Bees balked on a hard count and were flagged for a false start, moving the ball back to the 42-yard line. Schimmel got the call again, but this time was met by a host of Cougars' defenders. The Fighting Bees took their final timeout right before the play clock expired with 00:40 on the game clock. The next play turned disastrous. Quarterback Jeff Kietzman attempted a handoff to Schimmel, but the ball was bobbled and went flying in the air. The ball then escaped deeper into Fighting Bees territory away from Kietzman. As Kietzman went to fall onto the ball, he was knocked slightly off balance by Cougar defenders. After a players from both teams piled on top of the ball, it was the Cougars and defensive lineman Chris Kooistra who came out of the pile with the ball, setting up the go ahead score. "It is a play we run every day of my life," Sturdy said of the running play that was called. "We didn't want to punt. We didn't execute the second down play with just two yards to get a first down. We didn't get it done. We wanted to get a first down and run the clock out." The Fighting Bees did jump out to a 16-0 lead midway through the second quarter and took a 16-8 lead into halftime. The Cougars defense held the Fighting Bees scoreless for the third quarter and closed to within 16-14. Then freshman defensive back Matt Hunt came up with a big interception at his own 36-yard line. He returned the pick 58 yards to the Cougars' 6-yard line. Two plays later, running back Larry Williams found the end zone to put the Fighting Bees up 23-14. The Cougars capitalized on some good field position midway through the fourth quarter when Perryman added an 11-yard touchdown, which capped a three play, 29 yard drive. That then setup the final minutes of the game. "We'll see what we're made of," Sturdy said. "I don't ever remember losing a game like that one. It was just incredible. "I just think for us as a football team, we just need to look in the mirror. We need to challenge our kids to look in the mirror and see if there were things that could have been done better. I am looking in the mirror. It wasn't any one play." Perryman finished the day 13-of-29 for 174 yards and two touchdowns. He also had touchdown runs of 1 and 11 yards. The Cougars defense held the running back duo of Williams and Schimmel to a total of 145 yards. Schimmel led the way with 84 yards on 22 carries, including a touchdown. Williams added 13 carries for 61 yards and a score. The Fighting Bees will now hit the road to take on William Penn in Oskaloosa, Iowa, next Saturday. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. They will return home, the following week for their final home game of the regular season as they play host to archrival McKendree. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. Return to the Football Homepage |
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518 West Locust
Street, Davenport, IA 52803 |
