Down to one sub, Mustangs play on vs. Saints

I’ve probably seen stranger football games than the one I witnessed Saturday at St. Vincent’s Yarbrough Field, but my faltering memory won’t let me recall when.

Let’s get the hard part out of the way quickly. The final score was St. Helena 55, St. Vincent 6.

I’ve seen much worse blowouts. On a purely physical level, St. Helena is a much better football team than St. Vincent. The Saints are big, fast and execute very well. I’d be surprised, but not shocked, if they lose a game before the North Coast Section playoffs. The Mustangs, by contrast, are young and many players are beginning to adjust to varsity life.

What was strange about the game was that it became something of a reality TV survival game, except this time it was real and no edits were allowed.

St. Vincent started the game on a near 90-degree Saturday afternoon with only 16 available bodies. St. Helena brought in a roster of 27.

The Mustangs were simply outnumbered. Things had to go right for them to have a chance to make a game of it. To say things didn’t go right would be like saying it was a warm day. Things went wrong and kept going wrong.

St. Vincent would have times when it would hit a nice pass play and be on the verge of putting together a good drive only to have a pass dropped or the quarterback sacked. On the other side of scrimmage, the Mustangs made several good stands in front of their goal posts, only to have St. Helena convert on third down.

An indication of how things were going came in the first quarter when St. Helena had a first and goal at the St. Vincent 2-yard line. A terrific stand, led by Nick Vollert and Enzo Burgan, forced an 18-yard field-goal attempt. The ball was badly struck and barely got to the goal where it slapped the left goal post and dropped over the bar. It was that kind of game.

All things considered, St. Vincent actually played well. Quarterback Dominic Pedersen hung tough in the face of a relentless St. Helena pass rush to complete 14 of 29 passes for 178 yards. He threw for one touchdown with only one interception, pretty amazing considering the pressure he faced.

But the game was what it was - a better team beating a gritty but over-matched team.

It should be noted that in the past, St. Vincent has played the much larger St. Helena tough, losing to the North Central League I champions just 27-21 last season.

The real problem for St. Vincent was the numbers. Of the 16 bodies available for the game, four got hurt, probably none seriously enough to end their season, but seriously enough to end their game.

By the end, the St. Vincent lineup consisted of 11 players - several playing unfamiliar positions - on the field; one, quarterback Dom Pedersen, too valuable to use on defense, standing by the coaches; and four sitting on the bench with everything from headaches to hurting ankles.

St. Vincent ended up with just one running back, and that was converted wide receiver Trenton Starrett, and virtually no help on defense for the playing 11.

Better times are coming. It was too early after the game to tell how seriously those hurt were injured. At least one or two should be ready for this week’s game at Cloverdale. Coach Gary Galloway expects to get a couple of more players out for the varsity and will bring a couple of the older kids up from a junior varsity that has more than 20 players.

But give a lot of credit to the throw-back Mustangs, who not only survived, but competed well Saturday. It is something they can - and almost certainly will - tell their grandkids about.

(Contact John Jackson at johnie.jackson@arguscourier.com)