Flashes put together dominating effort against Bears

Published 11:59 pm Friday, October 29, 2010

Playing before a crowd of 2,000 alumni and fans to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Catholic education in Vicksburg, St. Aloysius rolled to a 40-12 win over West Lincoln on Friday.

For seniors Matt Wooten, Shelton Headley and Ford Biedenharn, the win was a great way to finish their final game at Balzli Field. The Flashes improve to 4-6 overall and 2-4 in Region 4-1A going into next week’s season ender at Sebastopol.

“We didn’t let all the celebration stuff get to us,” Biedenharn said. “After last week’s loss, we needed to come out and play well.”

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Biedenharn did a little bit of everything for the Flashes. He scored two touchdowns on runs of 26 and 25 yards. He completed a 15-yard pass to Headley and then caught a 12-yard pass from freshman Carlisle Koestler.

“I used to be a wide receiver, so it was fun to go out and catch a pass,” Biedenharn said. “It felt good to be able to do some different things.”

Headley was glad to see the seniors shine on such a big stage as the school honored teams and athletes the last 60 years of athletics before the game and at halftime.

“This was our last home game and it seemed like every senior got a score,” Headley said. “Then we were able to get our younger guys in the game.”

Headley was one of four seniors to score. He caught a 20-yard TD pass from Koestler with 10.8 seconds left in the first quarter.

St. Al built a 34-0 halftime lead. Carlton Campbell scored first on a 14-yard run after the Bears (0-10, 0-6) fumbled away their first possession at the Flashes 20.

Following an exchange of fumbles, St. Al took advantage of a 14-yard loss on a dropped punt snap to score on Biedenharn’s 26-yard run. Blake Hudson’s kick made it 14-0 with 2:47 left in the first quarter.

On their next possession, the Flashes took to the air. Koestler completed a pair of passes for 47 yards and the last, a 20-yarder, went to Headley to make it 21-0 after Hudson’s PAT.

Biedenharn added his second touchdown run three minutes deep into the second quarter and Mac Jones closed out the first-half scoring with a 36-yard TD run with 1:27 left for a 34-0 lead.

Flashes coach B.J. Smithhart cleared his bench to start the third quarter and the Bears were able to take advantage, going 89 yards in six plays. Alston Bozeman scored on a 12-yard run to make it 34-6.

The Flashes’ reserves fumbled aon two possessions, but the Bears could only capitalize on one of the turnovers. A 34-yard run by Bozeman set up Deon Moore’s 1-yard TD run. Moore finished with 154 yards on 25 carries.

St. Al closed out the scoring on Barrett Teller’s 5-yard run with 10:33 left in the game to make it 40-12.

Smithhart liked how his team responded despite losing four fumbles.

“We had a great crowd and that fired up the guys,” Smithhart said. “The kids played hard. We had the two turnovers in the first half and two more by the younger guys, but they worked hard and it was good to get our eighth and ninth-grade guys out there.”

The Flashes outgained the Bears 303 yards to 229. Jones rushed for 84 yards on six carries. Biedenharn added 77 yards on the ground and Teller had 53.