Neal Shines as De Smet Trounces Chaminade

It’s difficult to contain a star forever and on Friday night, senior wide receiver Durron Neal went supernova on the Red Devils (3-1).

Neal finished the game with two receiving touchdowns for De Smet (4-1) and took over the game after the first quarter.  Junior quarterback Connor Harrison threw three more touchdown passes to his other receivers, giving him a career high of five for the game, helping the Spartans to a 42-24 win over Chaminade.

“We had to stop their stars from making big plays and we let their stars make big plays,” said Chaminade head coach Doug Taylor.

This was the most that the Spartans had opened up their playbook this season and head coach Pat Mahoney certainly got the response he was looking for from his players.

“We got to get the ball to our playmakers any way we can,” Mahoney said.

On the other side of the ball, the Red Devils couldn't get enough out of their big star, senior running back Dixon Anthon. He helped supply most of the team’s offense in the first quarter, but had very limited success as the game wore on.

“They stopped the run early in the second half which really hurt us,” Taylor said. “We had to go in a different direction, but I thought [junior running back] Brandon [Minor] did a good job and kept us in the game a little bit.”

Minor busted a long touchdown run late in the fourth quarter to help his Red Devils pull back to within 18 points. However, his team never got closer than that in the second half as Neal and the Spartans’ dynamic passing attack proved to be just too much for Chaminade to handle.

“Tonight’s the first time [Neal’s] been one hundred percent healthy,” said Mahoney. “Tonight, I saw the pop that I had wanted to see.”

De Smet’s offensive line had a big hand in this contest too, as it provided Harrison more than enough time to find his targets throughout the game. He was occasionally flushed from the pocket, but gained a few first downs on runs resulting from those plays as well.

Chaminade simply didn’t have an answer for the Spartans’ offense. This certainly was illustrated in the first half when senior wide receiver KeVonn Mabon’s run after a catch included hurdling Chaminade defenders and remained in bounds to gain about five extra yards.

“We could never put pressure on them and I thought we covered pretty well,” Taylor said. “But if you can’t pressure with KeVonn [Mabon] and Durron [Neal], you know they’re going to hurt you, which they did.”

Stopping the run consistently for the first three quarters might have made just as big of an impact as the successful offense for De Smet, as it allowed the Spartans to control the pace of the game.

“They’re a run team [and] they’ve always been a good run team, so we just kept that in mind,” Neal said. “Also we know that they like to run the play action, so we sat on that real good.”

Neal was thrilled to hand rival Chaminade their first loss of the season and that he could play such a big role in the game.

“It feels wonderful,” he said. “I know my team’s going to count on me to make big plays and look for me as being the head captain and I told them that’s what I’m going to do for them. I’ll play offensive line if I have to, I just want to win.” 

Next week, De Smet hosts Oakville on Friday night, while Chaminade goes on the road to St. Louis University High School.