Cougars Shutout Statesmen to Begin Playoffs

 By Alan Paape        

         The St. Xavier Cougars began the 2012 NAIA playoffs this past Saturday, November 17, against William Penn University at Bruce R. Deaton Memorial Field. This would be the sixth all time matchup between these two teams in their history.  St. Xavier has posted a perfect 5-0 record all time versus William Penn. The last time these two teams met on the gridiron the Cougars came away with a huge 34-9 victory.

          The Cougars came out of the gate and set the tone immediately on both sides of the ball.  The Cougar offense drove down the field on ten plays and converted on a field goal on their opening series of the game.  Defensively the Cougars held the Statesmen to only two yards on their first offensive possession of the day.

            After one quarter of play neither team’s offense could get much productivity and the score was only 3-0 in favor of the Cougars.  Early in the second quarter, the Cougar offense found its normal rhythm and capped off a sixty two yard scoring drive with Jimmy Coy’s first touchdown pass of the day, a twenty three yard pass to Shane Zackery.

            The Cougar offense would not take long to put more points up on the scoreboard.  Less than two minutes after the first Cougar touchdown of the day, Jimmy Coy was at it again, this time finding wide receiver Corey Wennmacherdownfield for a thirty five yard touchdown pass.  This touchdown gave the Cougars a 17-0 lead.

            Before the half came to a conclusion the Cougar special teams unit was credited with a safety when the Statesmen snapped the ball out of the back of the end zone on a punt attempt.  At the end of the first half the Cougars held a commanding 19-0 lead.

            The third quarter of play was very similar to the first quarter of play where neither team was able to accumulate many points on the scoreboard.  The only score of the third quarter came late in the quarter when Nick Pesek capped off a nine play, sixty three yard scoring drive with a four yard touchdown of his own.  This touchdown increased the Cougar lead to 25-0 after the extra point attempt failed.

            The Cougars offense was done scoring for the day, but the defense was not.  Very late in the fourth quarter of play safety Jacob Ghinazzi intercepted a pass in his own territory, and with great blocking ahead of him he was able to take it downfield for a sixty six yard interception return for a touchdown.  With the extra point attempt failing again the Cougars ended the game by the score of 31-0.

            The offensive player of the game for the Cougars was Corey Wennmacher who registered seven catches for 109 yards and a touchdown.  The defensive player of the game for the Cougars was linebacker Dave Marciano who registered twelve total tackles and two quarterback sacks.

            With the win the Cougars will move on to face the University of the Cumberlands, at home on Saturday November 24, at 1:00 p.m.  If you are not able to make it out to the game on Saturday WXAV 88.3FM Chicago and wxav.com will have complete coverage of the game starting at 12:30 p.m.  

For more Saint Xavier News and Sports visit www.thexavierite.com.