St. Charles West's Season Ends in Washington

The football team gave itself a chance, but St. Francis Borgia senior Jared Mohesky snatched it away.

Mohesky's interception with 3 minutes, 37 seconds left in Monday's Class 4 sectional game was the crushing blow to the visiting Warriors, as host Borgia went on to a 30-10 win in Washington. It was the second of three Mohesky interceptions in the game, two of which led to Borgia touchdowns.

"Our coach had been telling me they like to (run) wheel (routes), so I sat back, waited for the ball to go in the air and made a play on it," Mohesky said. "To go up by two scores, it's tough to come back from. It sealed the deal."

Borgia up 7-3 by halftime

West kicker Ryan McCrum put the Warriors ahead 3-0 with a 39-yard field goal with 4:30 left in the first quarter, but Borgia answered with a 13-play, 76-yard touchdown drive capped by a 1-yard plunge from running back Ray Smith.

Borgia kicker Alex Severino converted the extra point but missed wide on two long field-goal tries in the second quarter, and with 6:08 left in the third Severino converted a 37-yarder that put Borgia ahead 10-3.

Less than a minute later, Mohesky picked off his first pass of the evening and returned it 25 yards into West territory. It took three plays before Borgia quarterback John Baumstark found receiver Robbie Vossbrink over the middle for a 28-yard touchdown pass, and Severino's extra point put Borgia ahead 17-3 with 4:40 left in the third.

West Tries for Comeback in Fourth Quarter

West began its comeback bid at the onset of the fourth quarter when sophomore quarterback Kyle Anders led the Warriors on a 9-play scoring drive covering 77 yards. Anders connected with Austin Loschen on a 24-yard pass play, advancing the ball to the Borgia 1. Marcus Taylor ran in his 15th rushing touchdown of the season on the very next play, and McCrum's extra point cut into Borgia's lead further at 17-10.

On Borgia's ensuing drive, Ryan Finders came up with the defensive play West desperately needed when he intercepted a Baumstark pass, giving West the ball at its own 6-yard line with 6:59 to play.

On the drive, West running back Austin Rugraff beat several defenders on a rushing play and had nothing but open field in front of him, but was brought down by his jersey on a crucial tackle by Vossbrink.

Three plays later, Mohesky outjumped Loschen for an Anders pass and returned it 40 yards deep into West territory, setting up Smith's second short touchdown plunge of the night, making it 23-10 and essentially sealing the victory.

A Fiery End to the Night

Borgia scored another rushing touchdown with 1:36 left - something the West coaches interpreted as running up the score - and it led to a firey exchange between both coaching staffs and some players following postgame handshakes.

Borgia coach Dale Gildehaus, a veteran coach who earlier this season earned career win No. 200, said he had regrets about his team's management of the game in the final minutes.

"Yes, without question," said Gildehaus when asked if he regretted not taking a knee to run out the clock. "I was going to take a knee, then they called the timeout. I said dangit ... So I said, yeah, put another score in. In hindsight, yeah.

"Their assistant coach was hollering at me, calling me names (like) 'I'm a loser.' No, I'd never do that (run up the score) against anybody. That's what he thought. (West coach) Gary (Strauss) was upset, (a West player) was hollering at us. There was never an intention to run up the score."

Gildehaus then issued an apology and implied that the sequence of events were misconstrued.

"St. Charles West is a great team and if they feel that way, I apologize," he said. "It's a very unfortunate thing that happened to end the game, to end on that note ... You hate to be called a name like I was called. That, to me, hurts. But that's life. You make an apology and hopefully there's forgiveness there and we move on."

Borgia, which beat St. Charles West 28-21 on Oct. 14 as part of district play, advanced to play MICDS at 1:30 p.m. Saturday in a quarterfinal matchup between 12-0 teams.

West ended its season 10-2.

"We just never got in a real rhythm on offense. On defense we just didn't stop No. 12 (Baumstark)," Strauss said. "We did great except for on third downs. Our third-down defense was not good, on both sides of the ball, really. On offense we didn't (convert) many third downs.

"This is a great team and I was very pleased and proud to coach them. They bust their butts and played hard. I thought what happened to them at the end shouldn't happen. But it happens. We'll put that in our memory banks."