By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

When seeking to pull off a big upset, all any coach will ask for is a legitimate chance for his team to pull off a win in the fourth quarter. At defending Class 2A champion Evangel on Friday, St. Charles set themselves up for that chance.

With a little less than 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Comets had just recovered an Eagles fumble on the heels of a drive that saw SCC quarterback Donnie Savoie dial up Jeffrey Hall for a 70-yard touchdown pass. SCC had hit on a two-point play, trailed 17-15, and now had the ball. One of the greatest victories in St. Charles history was in play.

But Evangel wouldn’t go along with the script.

The Eagles’ Dexter Burnom intercepted Savoie on a third down play and returned it for a touchdown, and Evangel would force a punt and score again to put things out of reach in a 35-15 win in the Class 2A semifinal game between the teams.

“We just didn’t execute,” said St. Charles coach Frank Monica. “There was a little pressure on that (interception), we didn’t go through all of our route progressions and it cost us.

“But we had opportunities all over the place. We came in feeling good about our ability to take care of the ball. We were plus-23 in turnover ratio coming in. But we made too many errors and you can’t get away with that this deep into the season.”

SCC turned the ball over five times on the night. Evangel scored 14 points directly off of two of those, and a third deep in SCC territory set up a field goal.

Evangel (11-2) will rematch with John Curtis Friday in the state championship game at the Superdome. It is the third straight year the two schools have met in the title game, with Curtis winning the first and Evangel winning last season. It is Evangel’s 15th trip to the state championship game in the last 18 seasons.

St. Charles (12-2) came out early and made a move, showing no fear of the Evangel tradition. Despite an early Evangel interception of Savoie, the Comet defense forced a fumble in the first quarter and Macky Cortez picked it up, returning it over 60 yards for an apparent touchdown.

The return — but not the fumble — was called back and SCC picked up on the Evangel 35. Savoie came up big for his team, finding John Wood on a fourth down conversion of five yards, then just evading a pass rush to loft a 12-yard touchdown pass to Hall, making it 7-0 in favor of SCC.

Evangel fired right back on its next drive, motoring down the field and capping things with a big play, a 25-yard score on a go-route from David Dee Duron to Judah Jones , tying the game.

St. Charles drove to midfield on its next possession, but Evangel seized the momentum when Burnom intercepted another pass to set his team up at its own 40. Evangel capped things off with a 15-yard Duron pass to Judah Jones to make it 14-7.

“Once we got behind, we got away from our gameplan a little bit offensively, and that’s my fault,” said Monica. “There were some calls I’d like back. But Evangel’s a team that magnifies your weaknesses. If you have them, they will exploit them.”

Again, SCC would drive to midfield, this time behind Marcus Hall and a Wildcat heavy attack. But again, an interception doomed the Comets as Savoie was picked off and Evangel returned inside the Comet 20. The SCC defense held firm and Gerald Shouse’s 31-yard field goal made it 17-7 at halftime.

“Our defense kept fighting,” said Monica. “Bending, but not breaking. Our defensive coaches had a very good plan, we dropped a bunch of people into coverage and brought pressure when needed. We had chances to take advantage of that, but offensively we found ourselves in too many third and longs. We couldn’t get it going.”

St. Charles got another turnover of its own at the 7:18 mark of the third quarter, recovering an Evangel fumble and driving to the Eagle 25. But a Comet field goal attempt came up short.

But after holding Evangel, St. Charles took another step toward the upset when Savoie threw a rainbow to Jeffrey Hall for a 70-yard score. Lazedrick Thompson’s 2-point run made it 17-15. An Evangel attempt to slam the door went awry after a seven-play drive ended in a SCC fumble recovery, giving the Comets a chance to drive and take the lead.

“We had our crowd into the game. The kids knew we had been here before,” said Monica. “The feeling (on the sideline) was, ‘Let’s go finish this out.’”

It wasn’t to be.

Dwight Gatlin intercepted Savoie on third-and-four and took it 35 yards to paydirt. The Comets blocked the extra point, giving SCC life even as time ticked down.

Evangel landed the knockout blow soon, however. It held SCC, forcing a punt. Evangel mixed things up with draws and screens. A draw to Dewitt Jones picked up 14 yards. A pass from Duron to Hayden Jennings picked up 13, bringing the ball to the SCC 10. Another delayed handoff to Jones nailed down a touchdown for Evangel. The Eagles would add one more score on a fumble recovery in the waning moments of the game to round out the scoring.

The Comets have lost just four games in the last two seasons, all to Curtis or Evangel, the last two 2A champions.

“These seniors have won 24 games over the last two seasons,” said Monica. “Hats off to all of our kids. The senior leadership was excellent. A lot of those guys were playing for the first time this season, and I give them a lot of credit.”