High school football: St. Thomas Academy pushes past Cretin-Derham Hall

Facing a fourth-and-2 from the Cretin-Derham Hall 17-yard-line early in the second quarter of a scoreless contest, St. Thomas Academy’s Love Adebayo knew his path to a first down — directly behind Cody Packer.

Adebayo stuck to his fullback like glue, almost pushing Packer forward, and the two trudged together for a 4-yard gain and a fresh set of downs. Three more Adebayo runs later, and the Cadets had finally broken through for the game’s first score.

That was about the type of effort it took for St. Thomas Academy’s vaunted rushing attack to break through the Raiders’ defensive front in the second meeting in as many years between the two historic rivals.

St. Thomas Academy’s offense faced far more resistance than it experienced in its two blowout victories to open the season. But persistence paid off in the running game, as Adebayo and Savion Hart ran for two touchdowns apiece in the Cadets’ 34-0 home victory.

The two rushers combined for 180 of St. Thomas Academy’s 230 ground yards.

“That’s obviously the best part of our offense,” said Cadets coach Dan O’Brien, who would’ve liked to see more success in the passing game. “In a game like this, when you get ahead, you want to run some clock and do some things to keep your defense on the sideline.”

Both backs scored in the second quarter to make it 14-0 at the break. That’s where the score stood until early in the final frame, when the floodgates opened.

St. Thomas Academy took over an early fourth quarter possession on the Cretin-Derham Hall 19-yard line after a punt return. Shortly thereafter, Adebayo scored on a 7-yard run. The Cadets’ defense then tallied interceptions on back to back Raiders possessions from Mark Rogalski and Anthony Bickford, leaving St. Thomas Academy short fields that resulted in touchdown runs by Hart and Daniel Dahl.

“Offense, we let our team down, and we had too many silly penalities, couldn’t protect. … We’ve just got to play better, a lot better on offense,” Raiders first-year coach Steve Walsh said. “Defense gave us a chance to win, and we just didn’t do anything with the ball.”

While Cretin-Derham Hall’s defense was good for much of the night, the Cadets’ defensive unit was truly great. St. Thomas Academy held Cretin-Derham Hall well south of one yard per carry. When accounting for sacks, the Raiders tallied just 18 rushing yards on 27 attempts and recorded 85 yards of total offense.

The Cadets’ defense has allowed just seven points through three games, as the team has outscored its three opponents 127-7.

“We’re an old team. Here, they preach the brotherhood, I think it’s about the bond,” said Cadets senior linebacker Jackson Cecioglu, who forced a fumble Friday. “The bond we build together, we kind of know where we’re going to be, who’s going to fill the holes, and I think that’s where everyone on this team plays physical. And that helps a lot.”

That unit is taking pride in the results.

“It’s the best thing ever to go into practice the next day and be like ‘We’ve let up maybe an average of 2.5 points per game,’ ” Cecioglu said. “It’s the best feeling, but just got to keep going and keep working.”

While the stage didn’t quite match last year’s meeting between the two teams at the Vikings’ TCO Performance Center, Friday rivaled it as closely as possible. It was the Homecoming and Tackle Cancer game for the Cadets. That, paired with the rivalry, led to a sellout.

Cars were parked a mile down the road every which way. Local radio station KDWB was on site prior to the game, a flyover took place pregame, and a fireworks show comparable to anything you’d see at your local town days went off at halftime.

The Raiders fall to 0-3 in Steve Walsh’s first year heading the program. That’s a product, primarily, of Cretin-Derham Hall playing the toughest Class 5A schedule in the state through the first three weeks of the season. The Raiders opened the campaign with three matchups against teams that entered the week ranked in the top 10 of the state’s 5A rankings.

Cretin-Derham Hall’s schedule gets more manageable moving forward, and Friday’s defensive effort suggests success could soon follow.

“It’s fools gold if you think we were 34 points better tonight. We weren’t,” O’Brien said. “They’re going to be a good football team by the end of the year.”