The Saint Xavier Football Team came out of Davenport with their fifth win in a row against the St.Ambrose Fighting Bees.
The Cougars were probably expecting an easy win against the 3-3 Fighting Bees, but St. Ambrose came ready to pull of an upset and early on it looked possible. With two minutes left in the second quarter St. Ambrose scored on a 31 yard pass from quarterback Declan McDonald. To give them a 17-10 lead. It looked like the Fighting Bees might even go into the half with the lead but St.Xavier responded and scored on a two minute drill that was finished with an Alex Martinez passing touchdown as time expired. This drive really seemed to light a fire under the Cougars as they came out in the second half looking like a completely different team.
Alex Martinez started off the 3rd quarter by throwing a 35 yard touchdown pass to receiver Michael Markasovic. This score would give the Cougars a 24-17 lead. Martinez was far from finished though as he would tack on another touchdown pass to start the fourth quarter to receiver Harold Davis and this time the touchdown was a 36 yarder. The Cougars now had some breathing room with a 14 point lead. The Defense , who had been perfect for the entire second half, added on the last score of the game when Freshman Defensive Back Jack Denney returned a Declan McDonald interception back for a touchdown. The final score of the game would stay 38-17 with a win for the Cougars
The best players for the Coogs in this game were all in the passing attack. Alex Martinez had a career game where he threw for 431 yards, a career high, and having the new all time St.Xavier record for completions in a game at 41. He also finished the game with three touchdowns.
The next standout performers are the entire St.Xavier receiving core. The number one receiver for St.Xavier, Harold Davis, arguably had the worst day among the top four receivers, but he still had 55 yards and a touchdown. Jacob Luedeman also had a great game adding 70 yards and eight catches of his own.
The top two receivers for the game however were Nick Czeszewski and Michael Markasovic. Czeszewski had an unbelievable day with 14 catches of his own and having 187 total receiving yards. Markosovic while not having as many yards Czeszewski arguably had an even better game. He had only 100 yards of his own but also added two important touchdowns.
While St.Xavier was great all over the field on Saturday there was notably one phase of the game that almost entirely missing, the run game.
St.Xavier running backs only combined for 18 yards total and if you add quarterback rushing yards to that then they ended up with -27 yards. While it didn’t end up hurting them in the end of this week, it might bite them down the road. This will need to improve if The Cougars expect to compete for a conference title.
The Cougars hope to continue their win streak next week where they play Olivet Nazarene on Saturday at Deaton Field.
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