St Xavier def. DuPont Manual 42-10 — Recap Presented by Kroger
No. 3 St Xavier had their best defensive performance of the season in their 42-10 rout of No. 8 DuPont Manual on Friday night.
The Tigers forced six turnovers, two of which were returned for touchdowns. Star quarterback Jack Sivori was responsible for St Xavier’s four scores on offense—two rushing and two passing. Sivori said after the game that Manual’s a good team and credited his defense for making his job a lot easier down the stretch.
“We haven’t been a defense that’ve turned people over a lot this year,” head coach Kevin Wallace said post-game. “We did a really improved job of defending.”
First Quarter: St Xavier 14, Manual 0
The Tigers took advantage of a short field off a shanked Manual punt, quickly setting up Jack Sivori with his first scoring connection to Bennett Boehnlein.
Crimsons’ quarterback Darien Wilson’s first pass on the next drive was tipped right into the hands of St Xavier’s Ben Marks. For the second straight drive, the Tigers were working with short field position.
Manual backed St Xavier up with a third and long, but their efforts were negated with another Sivori—Boehnlein touchdown strike. Just like that, it was 14-0 and the Tigers quieted the rocking crowd on Senior Night.
Second Quarter: St Xavier 14, Manual 3
Manual’s first drive of the second quarter included two fourth-down conversions that resulted in a field goal. The drive took nearly seven minutes off the clock and the Crimsons still found themselves down two scores after eating much of the second-quarter clock.
A huge fourth-down stop on a Sivori keeper ignited the crowd as Manual took over on downs.
A 52-yard bomb soon after from Wilson allowed Curtis Reardon to cross the pylon, but a costly holding penalty brought the Crimsons back and kept the game 14-3 heading into the locker room.
Despite the two scores, St Xavier totaled only 93 total yards and we’re kept to nine rushing yards on the ground. Manual only managed to muster up 68 yards on their end.
Third Quarter: St Xavier 28, Manual 3
Disaster struck for Manual deep in their own territory as a fumbled snap was recovered by the Tigers. Sivori called his own number two plays later for an eight-yard score.
Next drive—same result. After a 26-yard reception from Mekhi Smith, Sivori rushed it in for the second time in the third quarter from two yards out. The rush would be Sivori’s fourth and final score of the night.
“It felt great,” Sivori said post-game about his scores. “I wouldn’t mind getting zero touchdowns as long as we come out with a win.”
Marks showed his hands for the second time Friday night, intercepting Wilson’s pass on fourth down, and he would’ve taken it the distance if not for Wilson being in position for the touchdown-saving tackle.
Fourth Quarter: St Xavier 42, Manual 10 (FINAL)
The first play of the fourth quarter was intercepted by St. Xavier’s Jake Borland, setting the Tigers up with first and goal from the Crimsons’ nine.
A Manual stop and a missed field goal from St Xavier gave the ball back to the Crimsons. But for the second time in two possessions, Borland picked off Wilson—the only difference this time was Borland took it to the house.
The pick-six was the fifth turnover for the Manual offense at the time.
Manual wouldn’t give up, however. Wilson found Reardon on a streak to set the Crimsons up with first and goal from the four. JaWaun Northington would capitalize for Manual’s first touchdown of the night.
Adding insult to injury as the second teams came in on both sides, Jason Appel took a fumble recovery 16 yards to the house with just over two minutes remaining to seal the Tiger victory.
“That score is not going to be indicative of how we’ll play when we play them again in five weeks,” Wallace said. “The turnovers obviously had a huge impact on the game. I’m proud of how hard we played.”
The Tigers will host their final home game of the regular season next Friday against Butler (1-6) at 7:30 p.m.
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