MRH Leaves Ste. Genevieve Frustrated After Blowing Big Lead

The Dragons from Ste. Genevieve must have heard one heck of a halftime speech in their  home game against .

Other than a last-minute MRH score in the fourth quarter, the Dragons dominated the Blue Devils in the second half, winning 26-25 in a conference matchup.

“We didn’t finish and they capitalized,” MRH coach Brandon Gregory said. “We still gave ourselves a chance and didn’t finish there at the end.”

The entire first half felt like the perfect fall football night on the MRH side of the field. But the night ended much like its to MICDS.

(Check out complete photos from the game on our new Blue Devils Facebook page: www.facebook.com/MRHBlueDevils)

Ste. Genevieve won the toss and chose to receive, but fumbled on its 20-yard line to open the second half. Six plays later, MRH freshman Elijah Keely ran it in the end zone from the 7. The Devils went for two and missed for a 6-0 lead.

Two possessions later, Ste. Genevieve intercepted a Kahlid Hagens pass to put them on the MRH 36. But the Dragons fumbled the ball away on MRH’s 1-yard line. Helped by a 34-yard quarterback keeper by Hagens, MRH took it to Ste. Genevieve’s 35, where sophomore Karon Thomas ran in for the second MRH score, making it 12-0.

MRH again stopped Ste. Genevieve on downs, this time on the Dragons’ own 25. MRH then scored in four plays, finalizing it with a long Kahlid Hagens pass (10-for-29 in the game) to Kashon Hagens for the touchdown. The kick was good, and MRH went into the locker room with smiles and a 19-0 lead.

But the Dragons were undaunted. Ste. Genevieve senior quarterback Brendan Weiler said their coach, Bob Stolzer, told them, “We can win this game. We should be up there with them, and we should have had that touchdown when it was on the half-yard line.

“All of us knew we could, and we didn’t know if we could, and we came out and scored right off the bat and just kept going,” Weiler said. “They got tired and we kept going.”

The Dragons scored on their first possession, then as if on cue MRH fumbled the kickoff to give it back to the Dragons, who scored again halfway into the third period. Weiler’s passing and running was wearing down the Devils.

MRH then couldn’t convert a score in a 12-play drive, giving the ball back to the Dragons, who took the ball 85 yards in eight plays, making the two-point conversion to go up 20-19.

An MRH fumble in the fourth quarter with 3:55 on the clock led to a Weiler keeper from the MRH 20 and a 26-19 Ste. Genevieve lead.

With 2:42 left, MRH gave it one last shot. The Devils moved the ball 50 yards in six plays, punching it in from the 1-yard line on a Kahlid Hagens keeper, to close to within 26-25.

Senior John Barron’s extra-point kick was then blocked with 21 seconds left.

“Should we go for one or two,” Gregory said when it was all over. “The question always remains, but at the end of the day the kids got to make the plays and we’ll go from there.

“We had a lot of guys who played a good game,” Gregory said. He said they were hurt by missing some plays that would have bailed them out.

“Back to the drawing board tomorrow,” he said. “We’ll watch film, and just like if it was a win, we’ll be back to get better.”

The loss sets MRH at 2-2 going into its homecoming game next Friday against Park Hills Central.