Traverse City St. Francis Defeats Lumen Christi 42-35

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Traverse City St. Francis defeated Lumen Christi in an instant classic game Friday night. The two teams played their hearts out for 4 straight quarters. I loved the execution offensively in this football game. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>1st Quarter Big Plays</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Garrett Hathaway</strong> had a nice 28-yard run to setup St. Francis with a 1st &amp; goal. Lumen running back <strong>Derrick Walker</strong> had a 20 plus yard run to setup a <strong>Devian Franklin </strong>touchdown for Lumen Christi to tie the game at 7-7. Lumen Christi quarterback <strong>Joe Lathers</strong> had a 25-yard rushing touchdown to put Lumen ahead 14-7 at the end of the 1st quarter. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>2nd Quarter Big Plays</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>St. Francis running back <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='300384' first='Joey' last='Donahue'] </strong>had a big rushing play that put St. Francis at the Lumen 10-yard line. St. Francis quarterback <strong>Wyatt Nausadis </strong>connected with <strong>Garrett Hathaway</strong> for a 9-yard touchdown pass to tie the game at 14-14. <strong>Wyatt Nausadis</strong> also connected with<strong> Burke Flowers</strong> for a 33-yard touchdown to put St. Francis ahead 21-14 with 5:08 in the 2nd quarter. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Lumen Christi Standout players</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Derrick Walker</strong> was very effective running the football for Lumen Christi. He can run between the tackles with physicality. He also has the ability to catch the football out of the backfield. He had a good game on defense as well. He was making physical tackles and playing aggressive all night. Defensive back <strong>Alex Pastoriza</strong> was great in coverage all night for Lumen. He also did a good job of coming up and making open field tackles. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Lumen quarterback <strong>Joe Lathers</strong> had some outstanding plays for Lumen. He had an incredible 78-yard rushing touchdown that tied the game up at 28-28 with 5:11 in the 3rd quarter. <strong>Devian Franklin</strong> had a great game for Lumen. He had a critical sack with 2:23 left in the game that helped force a St. Francis punt. <strong>Colin Wilson</strong> had a big run that helped Lumen get back in scoring position. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Traverse City St. Francis Standout Players</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Wyatt Nausdis </strong>was terrific for St Francis. He had some big pass plays and also some big run plays. St. Francis brought him in late in the game to play corner and deep safety. He had shut-down coverage and did not allow any big pass plays. Running back <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='300384' first='Joey' last='Donahue']</strong> had a critical rushing touchdown late in the game to put St. Francis in control at 42-28. Defensive back <strong>Jack Prichard</strong> had good coverage all night at the cornerback position and also had some nice tackles. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Drew Hardy</strong> had some nice catches at the tight end position and also had a nice game defensively. <strong>Burke Flowers </strong>was part of the St. Francis secondary that played great overall. He had some nice catches out of the back field as well. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Looking Ahead </strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Lumen will play Hastings at home next week as they open up conference play. St. Francis will travel to take on Benzie Central next week. Lumen eyes their first victory next week and St. Francis will look to move to 3-0. I expect both teams to finish having strong seasons and both look like they could make deep playoff runs. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->