Eagle’s View Upsets Saint Francis at Home

Story by: Monica Exantus and Kevin Gatti

On Friday night, Saint Francis Catholic Academy suffered a non-conference loss to the Eagle’s View Warriors by a final score of 58-30.

The Warriors devoured Saint Francis from start to finish, making it look easy against a struggling team.

Although the Wolves move to 0-4 on the season, they played their best game thus far.

Warriors Dominate First Half

The Eagle’s View Warriors set their tone in the first quarter as junior Cory McCalip got things started with a rushing touchdown to put them up 6-0. This was followed by fellow junior Jaylon Hunter’s first score of the night to elevate the Warriors lead to 14.

In the second, the Wolves tried to find a rhythm on offense, but unfortunately, a nice drive was cut short when quarterback Riley Brown threw an interception. This led to another touchdown for Eagle’s View as the Warriors increased their position to 22-0.

The Wolves had been showing a solid effort, and it finally paid off when junior Omarion Littles returned the next kickoff to put St. Francis on the board, 22-6.

The Wolves’ defense continued to struggle and failed to stop the run again as Hunter scored his second touchdown of the night. Hunter intercepted a deflected pass from Brown on the next drive, thus leading to another score for the Warriors. At halftime, Eagles’ View led St. Francis by a score of 34-6.

Wolves Show Life in Second Half

The Wolves started off the third quarter with a statement when junior Jecomiah Walker scored a 57-yard touchdown run to make it 34-14 Warriors. However, Hunter was far from done as he broke away from the defense on an ankle-breaking juke to score once again. The Warriors were up 40-14.

The Wolves tried to get their offense going on the next drive but turned it over on downs. Eagle’s View then capitalized on poor run defense with another touchdown from to make it 46-14 Warriors.

After back-to-back fumbles, St. Francis ended up with the ball on their own 18-yard line. A couple plays later, Walker got back to business scoring his second long touchdown run of the night. The two-point conversion was successful as the Wolves clawed back 46-22.

On the Warriors’ next possession, sophomore Kennai Swinton had a monster run and stiff-armed a Wolf en route to the endzone to put Eagle’s View up 52-22. A late interception by Cory McCalip led to fellow Warrior Jacob Kern scoring his first touchdown run of the game, 58-22 Eagle’s View. 

As time winded down, the Wolves did not go away quietly as Walker capped off his strong performance with a third touchdown run on the night. The two-point conversion made it 58-30 Warriors as the final score.

Postgame

Despite the Wolves’ defeat, their offense looked the best it has so far this season. They were able to move the ball downfield consistently using the run with a major contribution coming from Walker who had 12 carries for 137 yards. In addition, Littles was the main threat through the air as he finished with 7 catches for 75 yards. Looking ahead, the connection between Brown and Littles might be something the Wolves can count on.

“I think our conditioning is okay, but mentally, when you get behind you can kind of lose focus, I guess. We’ve got to take care of the ball. When we get down and close we turned it over three times inside the 20-yard line. For the sake of argument, let’s say we score, now it’s a different football game. It’s a competitive game. You are probably here till midnight, but it’s a competitive football game. So, we’ve got to be better down and close and over the course of the game.” – Coach McDaniel.

Next week, the St. Francis Wolves will take on the 3-0 Legacy Charter Eagles at home on Thursday, October 1 at 7:00 p.m.