Sullivan Rallies Back And Overcomes St. James, 25-15

Sullivan (5-2) came alive in the second half for a 25-15 district victory against St. James (3-4). Both teams had previously lost to Hermann and St. Clair before heading into this match.

The Eagles initially struggled to break through the tight Tigers’ pass coverage but found their rhythm with the rushing game in the second half, ultimately overcoming St. James.

Head coach Eddie Haar saw his team improve on the mistakes that had cost them the previous game to Hermann, explaining, “I thought we did a much better job with our penalties and mental mistakes. That is something we will still continue to work to improve on.”

They had a total of 352 yards compared to the Tigers’ 172. The Eagles rushed for 317 yards and passed for 35.

Franky Erxleben led the team with 273 rushing yards on 30 runs and scored a touchdown.

Quarterback Robert York II ran for 44 yards and a touchdown, while Jeremiah Rodriguez gained 4 yards and picked up a score as well.

Dominic Ransom ran for 37 yards and Dayton Skaggs got 9 yards.

Seth Valley caught a 15-yard reception and Erxleben made a 10-yard reception.

In the first half, the Eagles struggled to convert first downs and faced tough penalties, similar to the issues they faced against Hermann.

Early in the game, a punt return did not go as planned for Sullivan. They believed the ball would roll down the field for a touchback, but it stopped right at the 1-yard line. On the next play, the Eagles attempted a run, but were pushed back into the end zone for a safety.

St. James would later easily score a 31-yard touchdown pass, taking a 9-point lead, leaving Sullivan’s sideline stunned.

The Eagles made another misstep as York sailed to Seth Valley, a Tiger stripped the ball from Valley’s hands for an interception.

Going into halftime, Sullivan was trailing 9-3 in their lowest first-half scoring effort of the season.

“Offensively we really needed to fix our pad level. We were just playing too high and we made a couple adjustments with our run blocking,” Haar said about what they worked on at halftime. “We also felt like we were flat, so we challenged them to play with more energy and we definitely did that in the second half.”

Sullivan regained their momentum with 2:57 left in the 3rd quarter on a clutch scrambling touchdown by York. On 3rd and short, he attempted to dive through the defensive line with a tush push. However, when he couldn’t move through the pile, York escaped, sneaked to the left and successfully reached the end zone.

Erxleben followed up with a 29-yard rushing touchdown and a 2-point conversion, breaking through St. James’ defense to extend the lead to 18-9.

For the Eagles’ last score of the game, Rodriguez dove into the end zone for his first touchdown of the season on a 1-yard run.

St. James, still trailing behind, 25-9, quickly scored at the end of the 4th quarter, bringing their total to 15 points.

Then with just 28 seconds left in the match, the Tigers attempted to comeback. But, Curtis Rall intercepted St. James quarterback Cooper Harlan’s pass down the field to claim a Sullivan victory.