St. Charles East bows out in opener

ST. CHARLES — In a season in which St. Charles East constantly showed poise in the biggest of situations, it was shocking to see turnovers and a lack of execution do in the Upstate Eight Conference champions.

Five turnovers and second-half offensive woes doomed the Saints on Saturday, as they fell to Rockton Hononegah 26-7 in round one of the Class 7A state playoffs.

"I'm so proud of them for so many things," first-year East coach Mike Fields said. "They can't take away the Upstate Eight championship. Sometimes the ball doesn't go your way and we didn't execute very well today. It ended a little bit too soon for us, but the sun will come up tomorrow."

Already down 14-7 at halftime, East (7-3) found its season beginning to slip further away midway through the third quarter.

The eighth-seeded Saints had a chance to squash the opening Hononegah (8-2) drive deep in Saints territory but the ninth-seeded Indians converted a key fourth-and-6 from the 12-yard line to keep possession. Hononegah punched in a score three plays later to make it 20-7 with 5:14 to go.

"They're good," Fields said. "We knew that coming in. They lull you to sleep (on offense). We weren't able to get a handle on it."

The Saints moved into Hononegah territory within two plays of gaining possession but a Zack Zajicek fumble quickly axed the potential threat.

"I give Rockton a lot of credit there," Fields said. "They stripped the ball a few times. We need to do a better job hanging on to it."

On its next drive, East couldn't move the ball past the 50, coming up short on a fourth-and-3 try — the first of three fourth downs the Saints failed to convert on in the half.

With the good field position, Hononegah capitalized, scoring four plays in to move up 26-7 with 11:24 left in the contest.

Back with the ball, a pitch on a fourth-and-1 play that had Nolan Possley aiming for Zajicek ended up falling to the grass and into Hononegah hands.

East gained just 93 total yards in the second half as the Indians ran away with it.

"We kind of beat ourselves in a way," Possley said. "A lot of mistakes, but we're going to remember this season for the rest of our lives. We're not going to have this game define how our season was."

After a big first half in which he gained 126 yards, Zajicek finished with 156 on 20 carries.

St. Charles East's lone score came with 1:48 left in the first half when Possley (5-for-14 passing, 65 yards) hooked up with Tyler Nutting on a 27-yard strike.

Possley tossed a pick and Zajicek and Nutting both fumbled the ball in the first half. Nutting had East's lone interception.

ROCKTON HONONEGAH 26, ST. CHARLES EAST 7

Rockton Hononegah     7    7    6    6   —   26

St. Charles East            0    7    0    0   —    7

RH — Grutsch 40 pass from Robinson (Adams kick), 6:54

RH — Robinson 1 run (Adams kick), 5:24

SCE — Nutting 27 pass from Possley (Keller kick), 1:48

RH — Robinson 1 run (kick failed), 5:14

RH — Zimmerman 4 run (pass failed), 11:24

Team statistics                  RH              SCE

First downs                          15                 14

Comp.-att-int.                   5-10-1          5-14-1

Passing yards                       61                  65

Rushing-att-yds.                46-199         41-238

Total yards                          260               303

Fumbles-lost                        1-0                5-4

Penalties-yards                     7-53             4-21

Individual statistics

Rushing:

RH — Rothmaler 13-67, Wiltfang 10-31, Robinson 12-43, Zimmerman 6-37, Tucek 3-17, Chandler 2-(minus)1.

SCE — Zajicek 20-156, Possley 21-55.

Passing:

RH — Robinson 5-9-0 61, King 0-1-1 0.

SCE — Possley 5-14-1 65.

Receiving:

RH — Grutsch 1-40, Rothmaler 3-16, Masters 1-5.

SCE – Nutting 2-38, Zajicek 1-13, Streidl 1-7, Barry 1-7.