St. Francis outsprints Roadrunners

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It took about six minutes for St. Francis running backs Mark Kachmer and Stan Bobowski to show they meant business against visiting Nazareth Saturday afternoon in Wheaton.

Kachmer’s 42-yard touchdown run on the Spartans’ first possession and Bobowski’s 83-yard run a possession later set the tone, as St. Francis beat Nazareth 42-20 in a second-round Class 5A football playoff game. It was St. Francis’ seventh consecutive victory.

But the pair wasn’t done. Before the first quarter even ended, Bobowski had a 55-yard interception return that set up Kachmer’s second touchdown of the quarter, a two-yard run. St. Francis led 21-0.

“We knew if we came out early and stuck it to them that we were going to be able to finish,” Bobowski said.

But Kachmer, who added a blistering 79-yard touchdown early in the second quarter for his third and final score, didn’t take any of the credit, even though he and Bobowski also played defense and each had an interception.

“It’s everybody. It’s the defense coming up with six [interceptions] and that’s caused by the line that pressured them, and the offensive line couldn’t have executed any better,” Kachmer said.

St. Francis (10-1) went ahead 28-0 by halftime, but was held scoreless in the third quarter. Nazareth (8-3) got on the board when quarterback Adam Marske tossed an 11-yard pass to Steven Murphy at the 4:12 mark of the third.

Bobowski scored St. Francis’ final two touchdowns in the fourth quarter. His two-yard run made it 35-7 St. Francis and then his 65-yard burst increased the Spartans’ lead to 42-14.

“We knew we were going to have to stick it to [Nazareth running back LaSteven McKinney],” Bobowski said. “We knew our offense was going to move the ball and with our type of offense, we had to get ahead early. We came out first series and stuck it to them. Everyone was executing perfectly.”

McKinney was held in check and didn’t score for Nazareth until there was 2:38 to go in the game on a five-yard run. That accounted for the final.

Marske threw his second touchdown pass of the day, a seven-yard strike, to Mike Dore early in the fourth quarter.