Crusaders strike quickly, ground Eagles

All anyone needed to understand how dominant Brother Rice was over Sandburg on Saturday night was to see one play midway through the third quarter.

Kicker Sean Noble was attempting a 35-yard field goal. Kevin Callahan's snap was high, but holder Jon Hollowed went sky-high to grab it, place it, and watched Noble kick it through the uprights just as if everything was routine.

The Crusaders made the difficult appear routine all night, and scored a 44-6 victory over the Eagles before about 2,000 fans in their Class 8A opening-round game in Mount Greenwood.

The rout earned Rice (8-2) a matchup against Belleville East (7-3) in next week's second round. The game is scheduled at Belleville East, but the school's poor field condition may cause the game to be moved to a neutral site in the St. Louis area.

"I was saying how 'nice' it was to take a six-hour bus ride," Rice coach Steve Nye said. "Now we get that experience."

With Rice scoring on its first two possessions, and Sandburg unable to get out of its own territory until late in the half, the game was over early. Rice's halftime yardage advantage of 186-98 was that close only because the Eagles mounted an 89-yard drive late in the half, Kevin Thompson scoring on a 3-yard dash for their only score.

Otherwise, Rice dominated from start to finish, piling up 429 yards to Sandburg's 105.

"I think we're getting better, hitting our stride," Nye said. "Tonight, we came out and established ourselves."

Rice's Pat Sullivan and Dwayne Dade scored on 1-yard plunges in the first quarter. The Crusaders nearly doubled their lead, to 27-0, in the second quarter, with quarterback Tom Gibson hitting Sullivan and Kevin Koehler on touchdown passes of 9 and 7 yards, respectively.

Only after that did the Eagles, aided by three Rice penalties totaling 23 yards on the scoring drive, move the ball. But Rice never relented, its final touchdown a 96-yard run by freshman Martez Walker midway through the final quarter.

"We didn't help ourselves in a lot of ways," Sandburg head coach Dave Wierzal said. "It's a shame to close it out the way we did. We're not going to beat a good team if we're not throwing our best punch."

Sandburg (6-4) finished with three straight losses, outscored 113-13 by Bolingbrook, Lincoln-Way East and Rice in those games.