St Francis ends first-round slump

Updated: October 29, 2011 10:34PM

St. Francis wasn’t about to settle for another early exit from the postseason Saturday night.

With momentum starting to tip in favor of visiting Burlington Central early in the second half, the Spartans came up with a series of clutch plays and pulled away for a 27-10 victory in the first round of the Class 5A playoffs at College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn.

The two biggest turning points came on junior Michael Hanson’s 70-yard interception return for a touchdown and senior quarterback Nick Donati’s 57-yard touchdown run as St. Francis (8-2) avoided a loss in their playoff opener for the third straight year. The Spartans move on to play unbeaten Kaneland in the second round.

“The last two years we lost in the first round, so there was a little pressure to get past that first-round curse,” Donati said. “We worked hard all week, we practiced hard, we studied film hard and it just paid off.”

The Rockets trailed 14-7 at halftime, but a lengthy drive to start the second half resulted in a 23-yard field goal from Cody Wallace that trimmed the deficit to 14-10. Burlington Central was on the move again after its defense forced a three-and-out, but a holding penalty led to a fourth-and-12 from the St. Francis 36-yard line.

Junior quarterback Ryan Ritchie initially lined up in punt formation, but the Rockets changed their plan with hopes of catching the Spartans off guard. After taking the snap, Ritchie looked to his right and fired a pass in the direction of his slot receiver, but the throw sailed high and into the arms of Hanson, who took off 70 yards the other way to make the score 20-10 with 1:59 left in the third quarter.

“I’m supposed to read it, and if a guy is open I’m supposed to throw it and try to get the first down,” Ritchie said. “I saw the middle guy had a lot of room, but I overshot him by a ton and the cornerback made a great play on it. I knew I should have just punted it away, but it was my decision and I didn’t throw it as well as I should have.”

Added Hanson, “Once they showed they were going for it the quarterback kind of looked over to my zone and I just read his eyes. I stayed in my zone, picked it off and went all the way.”

Burlington Central (7-3) had the ball at midfield still trailing by only 10 early in the fourth quarter when another attempt at trickery backfired. Junior tailback Joel Bouagnon took a toss and rolled out to his right before lofting a pass down the right sideline that was intercepted by Donati.

Three plays later Donati made the Rockets pay when he darted down the right sideline for his 57-yard touchdown to put the game away with 6:30 remaining.

Donati threw for 73 yards and a touchdown to go along with his 70 rushing yards. Junior Jack Petrando led the ground attack for the Spartans with 113 yards and a touchdown on 19 carries.

Burlington Central got a big game from Bouagnon, who ran for 154 yards and a touchdown on 24 carries. It was a tough way to finish the season for the Rockets, who made major strides by reaching the playoffs for the first time since 2007 in coach Rich Crabel’s first year at the helm.

“(The season) was great for our seniors,” Crabel said. “That class has worked hard for four years. It’s a big bunch and they’re a great group. Our kids just bought into what we were doing and did what we asked them to do.”

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