Saint Stephen’s survives shaky start to rout Out-of-Door Academy

Chase Brown has grown familiar with offensive fireworks during his brief time with Saint Stephen’s.

After helping the Falcons rally past Clearwater Calvary Christian in his Falcons’ debut, the Canadian running back had helped key a pair of Sunshine State Athletic Conference blowouts against Bradenton Christian and St. Petersburg Keswick Christian. The first quarter of Saturday’s visit to rival Out-of-Door Academy was the first time he had seen an opponent solve the Falcons.

As Out-of-Door attempted double passes, tried to convert fourth downs and sliced through Saint Stephen’s defense with herky-jerky runs by quarterback Gus Mahler, the Falcons picked up mindless penalties, committed momentum-changing personal fouls and ran into the mouth of the Thunder’s 4-5-2 defense without any hope of breaking through.

“You don’t usually see something like that,” Chase Brown said of ODA’s defensive alignment. “I think it kind of threw us off.”

It wasn’t until Saint Stephen’s third drive, its first of the second quarter, that the Falcons’ finally found space.

Quarterback Fred Billy bounced through the Out-of-Door defense for a 40-yard touchdown run. Billy wound up with a pair of touchdown runs during the first half and a touchdown pass during the second half. Brown produced a pair of 60-yard runs and finished with two touchdowns of his own, plus a season-high 162 yards. Saint Stephen’s eventually turned a sluggish start into a 41-18 win at Thunder Stadium, spearheaded by its signature ground game.

The Falcons (5-1, 3-0 Sunshine State Athletic Conference Coral Bay) broke off six runs of at least 20 yards, had four players with at least 40 rushing yards and produced 324 yards to blow out ODA (1-5, 1-3) and win the Headmaster’s Cup for the fourth consecutive season and eliminate Out-of-Door from playoff contention.

“We just weren’t seeing it to start in the first quarter,” Saint Stephen’s head coach Tod Creneti said. “We weren’t seeing things clearly, and when one guy makes a big play everybody feeds off of that. We had several longer runs today that a variety of guys made, so that helps, of course, but we just needed something to get us going and that ended up being a spark.”

The Falcons’ next drive began with the first of Brown’s 60-yard dashes, a run up the gut to the Thunder’s 6. Two plays later, Billy ran in his second touchdown to give Saint Stephen’s a two-touchdown lead.

ODA answered with a rushing touchdown by Mahler on the next drive, but by halftime the Falcons had almost put any realistic hope of an Out-of-Door comeback out of reach.

With less than two minutes left in the first half, Mahler bobbled a low snap at his 15, and defensive end Destin Falls hopped on the loose ball. Two plays into the ensuing drive, Brown darted into the end zone for an 11-yard touchdown with 1:04 remaining. Less than a minute later, Saint Stephen’s forced a punt to take possession at its 37. Billy handed the ball to Demetrius Davis, who shot to the right sideline for a 21-yard gain. The next play was a reverse to Davis, who charged down the right sideline again for a 42-yard touchdown and 28-6 halftime lead.

“Just a couple mistakes,” ODA head coach Ken Sommers said, “and it snowballed quickly.”

This story was originally published October 8, 2016 at 9:38 PM with the headline "Saint Stephen’s survives shaky start to rout Out-of-Door Academy."