BY KEVIN CHIRI

Publisher

BENTON – The St. Charles Catholic Comets have ridden to another successful playoff year, largely on the strength of one of the top running backs in the state.

Tyrell Fenroy has been outstanding all year for the Comets, helping them win their district title, and then win in their bi-district playoff opener last Friday night, 42-14, over Patterson.

But this Friday night when St. Charles plays here against the Benton High School Tigers, that strong running game will be more important than ever if the Comets have hopes of moving on in the class 3-A playoffs.

Kickoff time is set for 7 p.m.

St. Charles takes on the undefeated Benton team which is now 11-0 after beating Mansfield, 31-13, in their playoff debut.

The Benton offense is a strong one, so the key for St. Charles this week just might be the successful running game that could keep the ball out of the Tigers’ hands.

“The number one thing we have to do is slow down their offense,” SCC head coach Frank Monica said. “They run a wing-T and have these twin boys, the Wheatley brothers, who are both about 6-1,175, and a couple of really outstanding runners.”

However the Comets have a great back themselves in Fenroy, who rushed for 214 yards on 22 carries in the playoff win against Patterson.

“They are very big and talented, especially up front defensively, so it will be a great challenge for us,” Monica added. “We’ve got to play great defense and take care of the football to have a chance to beat them.”

A win would put St. Charles into the state quarter-finals, a spot they haven’t been for a number of years.

“We’ve got to come out and play with a lot of emotion against these guys,” Monica remarked. “But I think they are favorable to many teams in our district, and we played in a very tough district.”

Benton was ranked number two in the state power rankings when the regular season ended.

Fenroy is coming off a four touchdown performance when he scored on runs of 19, 9 and 57 yards, besides catching a 50 yard TD pass from quarterback Jesse Martin.