St. Albert trims Underwood in District opener.

Nolan Batten
He fired a 34-yard scoring pass to John O'Malley in the closing minutes of the first half for the only touchdown of the game, breaking a 3-3 tie and giving the Falcons the lead for good.

Batten also pinned the Eagles inside their own 10-yard line three times with punts, giving Underwood the long field the majority of the game.

Add in 40 and 43-yard field goals by C.J. Gradoville and a stingy defense and you have coach Jim Duggan first win in his second go-around as Falcon coach.

"You have to give all my assistant coaches tons of credit," said Duggan. "They came up with a great game plan to stop the Underwood option from scoring."
The Eagle option did move the ball, it just failed to cross the goal line, including a 90-yard drive in the third quarter that failed to score after the Falcons held on fourth-and-goal from the five to preserve the lead.

"I have to take some of the blame," said Eagles coach Barret Glasnapp. "We had some bad formations and shaky play calling in the red zone."

The Falcons took the lead late in the first quarter on the first of Gradoville's field goals, but the Eagles answered in the second on a 31-yard field goal by Spencer Fritsch.

St. Albert answered with a 65-yard touchdown drive, highlighted by two pass completions to O'Malley, the second of which saw the Falcon senior break two tackles and dive over the goal line to take a 9-3 advantage at the half.

Batten pinned the Eagles at the four early in the second half before the Eagles used 13 consecutive running plays to go 90 yards.

Falcon linebacker Chad Belt made a huge fourth down stop, his second of the night, to keep the Eagles off the scoreboard.

"We should have kicked the field goal," said Glasnapp. "They are too good of a team for us to waste scoring chances on."

The Falcons replied with a 15 play drive of their own to set up Gradoville for his second field goal and put the game out of reach.

"Stopping them on that long drive was huge," said Duggan. "We gave up some yards but held when we had to."

Austin Jager of Underwood led all rushers with 163 yards, and teammate Erik Pedersen added 85, but the Eagles were only able to complete one pass.

"They are a good team and clearly we have some work to do," said Glasnapp. "We showed a lot of heart, but didn't manage to win."

Jeremy Schieffer, Doug Moran and O'Malley used the backfield by committee approach for St. Albert to work the clock and keep the Eagles off the field all night.

"All I can say is that we really needed this win," said Duggan. "It was a good team effort and a win over a very good team."

Underwood 0 3 0 0 - 3

St. Albert 0 9 0 3 - 12

Records: Underwood (1-2), St. Albert (1-2).

Ratings: SWI: Underwood 6th (A-1A-2A), St. Albert 7th (A-1A-2A).

Matt Prieto, Staff Writer - Daily Nonpareil