Pios crush St. Louis

CROWLEY – On paper, Notre Dame looked like a matchup nightmare for St. Louis. The game itself did nothing to disprove that as the Pios rolled to a 34-3 win Friday at Gardiner Stadium and moved to 3-1 on the season.
If stats are your thing, try this on for size. Heading into the fourth quarter, the Notre Dame defense had so dominated the night that St. Louis had minus 16 yards on offense. Meanwhile the Pios were rushing for 316 yards and throwing for 148 to total 464 yards on the night.
“Our defense was just outstanding,” noted Pios head coach Lewis Cook. “Any time they got a little something good to happen, our defense would come up with two or three plays to turn them around.”
The Pios brought back the quick strike offense with a first possession score. After the defense forced a three and out, quarterback Brad Stoma drew in the Saints secondary with a fake handoff and went deep down the middle to Hunter Miller for a 48 yard pass completion to the Saints five yard line. Lance Bertrand ran it in from two yards and Dustin Reiners added the point after for a 7-0 lead.
It took the Pios three cracks from the five to get that early score as the Saints managed to cause some problems for the Pios running game. St. Louis stacked the line and forced an exchange of punts before the Pios were able to again light the scoreboard.
“They were taking some chances on defense trying to disrupt us,” added Cook. “Their linebackers were coming through and they were bringing pressure off the edge, leaving their safeties to play the run and we couldn’t get to him to block him.”
Stoma started a 62 yard drive with an 11 yard completion to Miller. Damon Comeaux popped off runs of 11 and 10 yards and Stoma found Miller for another 7 yard completion.
From the St. Louis 27, the Saints blitzed off the edge and Comeaux cut inside the block of Reese Besse to the sideline and around the corner for a touchdown. Reiners added the PAT as the first quarter ended with a 14-0 Pios advantage.
Saints cornerback Michael Mack put his team in position to cut the lead with an interception at the Notre Dame 44. On first down, Conner Kirsch sacked St. Louis QB Dylan Greenman for a ten yard loss. On second down, Hayden Bourgeois came up from his safety spot to drop ball carrier Cody Rodriquez for a three yard loss and a third down incompletion pretty much explains the rest of the night for the St. Louis offense.
On the next possession, Stoma avoided pressure and lofted a perfect strike down the Pios sideline for a 63 yard touchdown to wide receiver Boedy Borill. Reiners again drilled the PAT and Notre Dame took a 21-0 lead into the locker room.
“They were being aggressive and we were able to take advantage of that,” continued Cook. “The Mack kid made a nice play on the interception, but on the touchdown we had Boedy run a double move on him and he went for it.”
Halftime adjustments can make or break a game and for Notre Dame the changes reinvented the running game and produced a score in just over a minute. Bertrand powered for 22 yards on the first play of the third quarter. Fullback Ivy Paul Robichaux burst for 29 yards on the next play. Bertrand then popped through the left side and avoided a tackler for a 33 yard TD run and a 28-0 Pios lead.
“We have a little bit of a lead and you hope the kids don’t come out flat after the half,” noted Pios coach Cook. “We were hoping to put a nice little drive together and our defense was playing so well it all fell together for us.”
Sacks by Trey Vautrot and Nate Link forced another three and out for St. Louis. Of 11 Saints possessions, the Pios forced 8 three and punt results.
“Earlier in the game we tried some wide plays where we send a back to block the linebacker and the guard goes to get the safety,” explained Cook. “Well, we couldn’t get out to him. At the half, we changed it up and put the back on the safety. That first touchdown in the third quarter was that play. We were able to get to him quicker and cut him off and Lance hit the crease and scored.”
Notre Dame needed just five plays and less than two minutes to cap their scoring for the night. Of the five touchdown drives, three took less than two minutes each and the longest scoring drive was a mere three minutes and nine seconds.
Joe Faulk got the final march underway with a tough 11 yard run. Stoma completed a 7 yard pass to Borill and Comeaux kept the drive going with a 12 yard third down run. Dillan Gilbert plowed through the middle of the Saints defense, dragging a tackler into the end zone for a 15 yard TD run to make it 34-0 with 7:21 left in the third quarter and end the evening for St. Louis and for the Pios starters.
“That second series we throw the spot pass to Joe and hit a quick screen to Boedy,” Cook noted. “Those were things we wanted to look at in this game and we wanted to do it then because if we get another touchdown it is then too late to try and throw it again.”
St. Louis was able to avoid the shutout when Thomas O’Dowd kicked a 54 yard field goal in the fourth quarter. The Pios reserves were able to run out the game clock behind first down runs from Gabe Petry and Adam Jackson.
The Pios were able to spread the running around to eleven different ball carriers led by Bertrand with 12 rushes for 89 yards and two scores. Comeaux gained 72 yards on six carries and Gabe Petry had a 32 yard run and 68 total yards on 8 runs.
Stoma completed nine of fourteen passes for 148 yards and one TD. Borill had three catches for 75 yards and Miller also caught three passes for 62 yards to lead the receivers.
The Pios defense recorded five sacks and ten tackles for losses. Conner Kirsch had three of those stops for a loss with Nate Link and Hayden Bourgeois each posting two. Sophomore linebacker Patrick Burleigh made six tackles in the fourth quarter and led the Pios with eight total on the night.