Simple play lifts Batavia past St. Charles East

SHARE Simple play lifts Batavia past St. Charles East
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Simple doesn’t always work this well.

A dive play, designed to gain a couple yards, went for a long touchdown instead, and Batavia used it to defeat stubborn St. Charles East 19-6 Friday night at Norris Stadium.

Batavia (8-0, 5-0 Upstate Eight River), holding a 6-0 lead and faced with a third-and-1 at the St. Charles East 49 with just over 4½ minutes left to halftime, went conservative.

Junior quarterback Micah Coffey handed the ball to Anthony Thielk on a dive play straight up the middle. Only Thielk broke it and went all the way for the touchdown and the Saints really never recovered.

Actually, Thielk should have been stopped for a short gain but two St. Charles East tacklers failed to bring him down.

“Our defense played their hearts out,” St. Charles East coach Mike Fields said. “We weren’t able to finish and wrap up (on Thielk’s run). After that we did a much better job but you have to wrap up every single time.”

The score doesn’t show it, but it was a game with offense all over the field.

Batavia had 405 yards and St. Charles East 289. Coffey completed 14 of 24 passes for 172 yards, seven to Zach Strittmatter including a 19-yard touchdown, and Anthony Scaccia had 20 carries for 156 yards.

But the Bulldogs were stopped by the Saints three times inside the St. Charles East 20.

“Credit to them and their defense,” Batavia coach Dennis Piron said. “Those guys really fly around. They were well prepared for us.”

St. Charles East (5-3, 4-1) quarterback Jimmy Mitchell threw for 174 yards (14 of 31) with Brannon Berry grabbing seven of those passes for 120 yards. But the Saints only score came on a 2-yard run by Erik Anderson with 3:22 remaining in the third quarter.

“We had opportunities we just couldn’t take advantage of but the defense had something to do with that,” Fields said.

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