USC Rallies Late To Beat St. Clair-Loyola: Game Recap

Nate from Northstar Football News made the hour and a half trip out to St. Clair to catch their matchup against United South Central (Wells, MN) in which the weather had a huge factor in the outcome of the game. Check out how the Rebels outdueled the Spartans. The game started as a defensive battle with no score going into halftime at 0-0 from St. Clair. Part of the way thru the 1st quarter, Spartans QB <strong>Ben Ellingsworth</strong> broke a 31-yard run to put the Spartans at the Rebels 41-yard line. Unfortunately, they would not capitalize on his big run. At halftime, I chatted with the guys from the press row and stated: "one or two big plays will win this game". My logic was spot on, as with about 9 minutes to go in the 3rd quarter Rebels RB <strong>Zach Niebahr </strong>found a gap and broke it open for a 31-yard rushing touchdown to put the Rebels up 6-0 on the Spartans and put Niebaur over the 100 rushing yards mark early in the second half. The Rebels would strike again in the 3rd quarter. After losing QB <strong>Isaac Meyer </strong>for the season last week, I expected there to be little to no passing game from the Rebels but that big play mentality came in for QB <strong>Ethan Dallman</strong> when he dialed in on WR <strong>Mark Bushlack</strong> for a 33-yard passing touchdown to get the Rebels a 12-0 lead. The 4th quarter was when the weather got colder and rainier, which caused a scoreless quarter. Although it was a losing affair for the Spartans, they got a ball game on defense from <strong>Kahlan Benning, Thomas Loeffler</strong> and many more Spartans on key stops. The Rebels moved to (7-0) on the year and should move higher than 6th in next week's 1A football poll. The Spartans (3-4) showed a lot of poise last night and I believe are better than their record shows. United South Central will have a home matchup against Waterville-Elysian-Morristown (4-2) in a game that should be a close one based on tonight's result with St. Clair/Loyola. St. Clair/Loyola will travel to Le Center to play Cleveland/Immanuel Lutheran (1-5) in a game they should easily win to finish the regular season at 500.