Metro Catholic Conference Notebook For The Week Of Sept. 25

MCC Football --  kept the top spot (2-0 MCC record) after a 45-26 nonconference win over 3-2 Francis Howell to improve to 5-0 on the season.

The Cadets, who are averaging 42.2 points per game this season, saw Dalton Demos throw for 369 yards and four touchdowns despite a pair of picks. Jonathan Parker rushed for 104 yards and a touchdown. He also caught a TD. Aarion Penton caught six passes for 136 and one score.

De Smet jumped into second place at 2-1 in the MCC past 1-1 Chaminade after . Connor Harrison threw for five touchdowns to lead the Spartans (4-1 overall), as the Red Devils dropped their first game of the season.

SLUH (2-3, 1-1 got back to winning this week with a 48-0 thumping of Vianney (1-4, 0-3) Friday night. Terek Hawkins ran for three scores and Stefan Sansone caught a pair of touchdowns and ran another back 42 yards on an interception return. Hawkins rushed for 118 yards on only 10 carries.

Soccer --  veteran soccer coach Greg Vitello knows a thing or two about winning programs and state championships.

So when Vitello was asked earlier this week whether his 2011 Spartans had the makings of a special team, he wouldn't acknowledge it but wuldn't back off the question either.

"What this team has is good depth," Vitello said after a victory over Whitfield. "In years past, our depth hasn't always been that good. This year, we have good depth, and that makes a team so much better because they compliment those guys you depend on."

De Smet continues its early-season roll with four more wins this past week over  (8-1), Fort Zumwalt South (5-0), John Burroughs (4-1) and Saturday's 2-0 win over Loyola Academy of Chicago. The Spartans are now 9-1 on the season and have won six in a row since their only blemish on Sept. 8, a 2-1 setback against Metro Catholic Conference rival CBC in the CBC Tournament.

"This is a veteran crew. These are three-and four-year varsity players," Vitello said of his team. "They've been through our system. It's kind of like club teams that have been playing together for five or six or seven years. These guys have been together for three and four years and it really helps. In practice, there's not a whole lot of stuff that we have to explain. They pretty much know. We're not doing anything different than I did 20 years ago."

The Spartans will have five days off between games before playing four games in a span of three days beginning Thursday at Mehlville.

* The other four MCC schools (CBC, , SLUH and Vianney) all had high hopes of winning the CYC Tournament this past week, which culminated Saturday night at the Anheuser-Busch Center.

Vianney (8-2-2) began with a blaze, blitzing Webster Groves 7-0 before downing St. Mary's 4-1. However, a 4-1 setback to eventual champion O'Fallon (Ill.) saw the Golden Griffins' winning streak snapped at five with a chance to win their pool.

Chaminade (6-3-1) also didn't make it out of pool play by going 1-1-1. The Red Devils tied Francis Howell Central 0-0 but fell 2-1 to Mehlville before winning 4-1 over Duchesne. The Red Devils (1-0 in the MCC) will play a key conference game Wednesday, when they host Vianney at 5 p.m. The Golden Griffins will make their MCC debut in the match.

CBC (5-3-1) also was left out of pool play, going 2-1 in the tournament with wins over Trinity (3-1) and Lindbergh (3-0), but a loss to pool champ Rock Bridge (6-2) left the Cadets humbled.

SLUH (7-2-1) also had a chance to win its pool after wins over St. Dominic (1-0) and Kirkwood (3-0), but the Junior Billikens fell to pool champ Oakville 2-0 and this were eliminated.