[10/23/04]It was truly a homecoming for the St. Aloysius Flashes who were playing their first home game in a month.

The Flashes did not disappoint the hometown crowd as they cruised past Dexter (1-8, 1-6 Region 4-1A) to improve their record to 2-7 overall and 2-5 in the region. The Flashes will be on the road once again next week as they travel to West Lincoln for another key district match up.

“I’m not surprised about Dexter. They have a lot of speed,” St. Al coach Jim Taylor said. “The key for us tonight was being able to move the ball.”

Dexter put the first points of the game on the scoreboard with 10:29 to go in the second quarter with a 30-yard field goal to make the score 3-0. St. Al answered at the 6:19 mark with a 47 yard run by Bray Jones.

Thomas Escousse’s point after split the uprights and St. Al was in business with a 7-3 lead. Dexter regained the lead on a 6-yard run by quarterback Rico Haynes. The point after sailed wide right and the Bulldogs took a 9-7 lead into the break. St. Al started the second half scoring frenzy with a 1-yard TD run by Rob Jones. The Flashes took a 15-9 lead on a two-point conversion run by Rob Jones.

The Bulldogs found the end zone soon after as Haynes connected with Mario Miller for a 26-yard touchdown pass. The point after was no good.

It took the Flashes only 34 seconds to regain the lead when Rob Jones, the team’s leading rusher, broke loose on a 51 yard run that put the home team up 22-15 with 5:29 to go in the quarter.

The Bulldogs pulled to within one point when Haynes ran the ball in from the 1 yard line to make the score 22-21 Flashes.

Charles Sassone returned a fumble six yards for another score as the Flashes upped the lead to 29-21 with 9:20 to go in the game.

Haynes found the end zone again, this time on a 5-yard strike to Ladarius Miller. The Bulldogs made the 2-point conversion to tie the game at 29. That was as close as the Bulldogs got as the Flashes added two scores late in the game. The first was on a 33-yard pass from Daniel Halinski to John Robert Burnett, and the final points of the game came on 1-yard run by Rob Jones.

“Rob ran well with good blocking. He was actually a little under the weather tonight,” Taylor said.

St. Al will travel to West Lincoln next Friday night before finishing the season at home against archrival Cathedral.

“West Lincoln has a solid team. They’ll run a strong power-I. Hopefully we can keep our streak alive,” Taylor said. “We had a good team effort tonight and we’ll need one again next week in order to get a win.”

Kickoff Friday night is set for 7:30.