ST. CHARLES -- After South Elgin's 42-3 loss Friday night to St. Charles East, it was easy for the Storm to play a game of "what if."
However, the power running of Wes Allen left little doubt which way the game would go as he rushed for 196 yards on 22 carries and scored on touchdown runs of 13, 1, 10 and 31 yards to help the Saints bounce back from last week's quadruple overtime loss to Neuqua Valley.
"For us, the big one was dropping that pass in the end zone," South Elgin coach Dale Schabert said after his team fell to 2-5 overall and 1-3 in the Upstate Eight Conference.
In the first quarter, South Elgin trailed 7-0 but owned the ball on second down at the Saints' 11-yard line. Quarterback Patrick Rae threw over the middle for what looked like a touchdown, but the ball popped out of Josh Smith's hands. A play later, Rae's toss over the middle got picked off by linebacker Patrick Friel at the 6 and he returned it 94 yards for a TD to make it 14-0.
"We could have made it 7-7," Schabert said. "We need that burst of energy. That's a big play for us. You tie it up there and the emotion is high on our sideline. You go play and unfortunately the next play, Pat made the right read, their linebacker that stepped in and took that thing all the way back, it was a nice play by him.
"Pat made the right read. You're talking about a fraction of a second delivering the ball at the right time and he had a guy in his face. I've got no fault with that throw."
Rae went on to complete 11-of-25 for 150 yards, including six for 130 yards to Smith. But that one drop loomed larger due to the interception return.
"Yo go from one play, it's tied and the next play that happens, and that's tough," Schabert said. "We're not a good enough team to have that happen and put it aside and say, 'OK, it's 14-0. Here we go."
The Storm found itself down 7-0 after one St. Charles East play from scrimmage. Quarterback Danny White faked the handoff to Allen out of the spread formation, then scampered 58 yards around left end to a TD.
"It was nice to get started off like that, and for Danny to get that touchdown it's not surprising that half their defense ran at Wes Allen," Saints coach Ted Monken said. "We had heard through the grapevine that their kids were all saying we were a one-man team, that we've got one player and we're going to give the ball to him every down, which is kind of true, but we didn't want to do that completely.
"But we knew if we went a different direction we'd have the chance to move the ball on the opening play."
From there, the Saints started handing the ball to Allen and chewing up yardage. His 13-yard run early in the second quarter made it 21-0, and he scored on a 1-yard dive to end a 48-yard drive with 5:24 left in the half for a 28-0 lead.
The Saints pounded away for 335 yards rushing on 38 attempts while their defense held Larkin to 186 total yards, 10 first downs and had an interception from Bryce Barry as well as fumble recoveries by Philip Bucaro and Nolan Possley.
"We got pressure on the quarterback, which we had trouble with the past couple weeks, which was huge -- making that quarterback not throw the perfect pass every time," Monken said after his team became playoff eligible, improving to 5-2 overall and 4-1 in the UEC.
The Storm junked the spread attack much of the second half and put Rae under center to try and establish a running game for the future.
Its only points came on a 33-yard field goal by freshman David Reisner to start the third quarter after the first of two fumble recoveries by Michael Oskorep.
"Kicking a field goal, to me that was like throwing a rock at a tank," Schabert said. "I would have liked to have had a touchdown.
"It made a little metal sound when he hit it, but it would have been really nice to get something going there."
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