St. Charles vs. New Lothrop Recap

When the St. Charles Bulldogs and New Lothrop Hornets met to open the 2006 season, it was the future state champion Hornets that turned a close first half into a route with an impressive second half performance. Since then, the faces have changed drastically for both squads, and the re-match between two small schools was a complete reversal from the year before.

Neither team was able to generate any offense during their first offensive possessions. It was the Bulldogs that scored, first, though; with their second possession of the game, they marched down the field into a first and goal from the New Lothrop 3 yard line.

The Hornets, though, weren’t about to hand away a touchdown. A valient stand by the home team stuffed three consecutive Bulldog run attempts. On fourth down on the 1 yard line, however, St. Charles went with their first pass play of the night and quarterback Brian Halas found sophomore tight end Travis Crane wide open in the corner of the end zone to give the Dawgs an early 6-0 lead.

New Lothrop rallied their way down the field, led by playmaking senior runningback Ryan Praski. The drive stalled out deep in St. Charles territory, though, and the Bulldogs took the ball back. Once again, though, the defenses for both teams stood strong.

It wasn’t long, though, before St. Charles was able to wrest momentum back. This time, Halas found Marshall Davenport for a short swing pass that the junior runningback took to within the opponent’s 10 yard line. Once again, New Lothrop made a valient stand, but sophomore runningback Dugan Roosa was able to wiggle his way into the end zone, and after another failed 2-point conversion, the Bulldogs had a 12-0 lead that they nursed into halftime.

Unfortunately for the Hornets, a 15 minute break wasn’t enough to slow down the Bulldogs’ run attack. On the very first play of the second half, senior Ryan Humpert took a run 50+ yards, and a few plays later, capped the drive with a short touchdown carry.

Just when it looked like the Bulldogs might run away with the game, however, the Hornets came roaring back. The invigorated New Lothrop squad converted several first-downs before Ryan Praski took a direct snap 30+ yards to the end zone. Just like that, the game was 20-8 and the Hornets looked poised to make a comeback.

It was not to happen, though; on the next drive, Ryan Humpert made another long run up the middle, this time all the way to paydirt. A few minutes later, he broke yet another one; with the score at 32-8, the subs were in and the route was on.

Neither team will have a chance to relax next week. New Lothrop will be looking to regroup against a Hamady team that came within two points of defeating them last year. St. Charles might have their toughest test of the season next week against defending conference champions, the Ithaca Yellowjackets. The winner of that game will be in the driver’s seat in the race for the Tri-Valley West conference championship.

PLAYERS OF THE GAME
St. Charles
RB/DB - Ryan Humpert
Humpert scored three touchdowns for the Bulldogs and tallied 211 yards of rushing.

New Lothrop
RB/DB - Ryan Praski
Praski provided the majority of the Hornet offensive production with 142 rushing yards on 20 carries.