FORT WAYNE – The alarm went off with 7:48 to play in the third quarter, and it sounded suspiciously like Chris Svarczkopf. Looked a lot like him, too.
You could see the Bishop Dwenger coach on the sideline, slashing the air as he called timeout, beckoning his offense off the field with gestures that clearly indicated he was not content.
The Saints, after all, had just lined up in the wrong set. They hadn’t scored since the first quarter. The showdown of unbeatens – Dwenger and North Side – looked unnervingly as if it was about to become one, instead of the 41-3 Dwenger victory it eventually became Friday at Zollner Stadium.
What’d you tell ’em, Coach?
“Well, we needed to get the momentum back in our favor,” Svarczkopf said.
That right, Patrick Ryan?
“(He said) it was just time to execute,” said the Saints’ quarterback, who completed 8 of 18 passes for 135 yards. “We needed to stop playing around. And we were getting outplayed by their defense. Their defense was giving us fits all night, and we were just frustrated. So we just needed to come out and smack them in the mouth and run it up the gut. And that’s what we did.”
Eventually, that is. First, the Saints came out of the timeout, and Remound Wright – who ran for 103 yards and four scores on 18 carries – dropped a sure six.
But on the next play, Ryan found Steven Espinoza for 18 yards to the North 23, and four plays later Greg Black knocked home a 33-yard field goal to push a 21-3 Dwenger lead to 24-3. Two plays later, D.J. Neal fumbled it back to the Saints at his own 26; on the next play, Jalen West, who complemented Wright with 77 yards, inhaled all 26 yards in one gulp, and the Saints were up 32-3.
Game, set, match, although the Saints tacked on a safety and Wright’s fourth touchdown.
“We got the nice stop, and then we got nice blocking up front on the isolation play and Jalen West just accelerated right up through there,” Svarczkopf said. “That gave us the spark that we needed.”
For North’s part, four turnovers – two interceptions and two fumbles – torpedoed an otherwise game effort, particularly defensively.
