The positives from the Bishop O’Connell Knights’ 31-14 loss to the St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes Saints on Sept. 1 were the continued strong play of the defense and an offense that displayed some second-half spark.
Those two pluses, though, weren’t enough to overcome a mostly sluggish and mistake-prone offense, especially in the first half, that was a big reason O’Connell trailed 17-0 at halftime and never caught up in the non-conference high-school football game, played indoors at the St. James facility in Springfield.
The result left the Knights with a 1-1 record.
O’Connell was hurt by four turnovers, including an interception return for a touchdown, a lost fumble and another interception deep in its territory, each that set up two other Saints’ TDs.
“You can’t turn the ball over like we did,” O’Connell coach Todd Sabatino said. “We didn’t run the ball or move the ball enough in the first half.”
O’Connell was led by second-string quarterback Henry Behrens. He was playing in place of starter Jonathan Nguyen, who suffered a late-game broken ankle in the Knights’ season opener. Sabatino said it took Behrens, who was intercepted three times, a while to adjust to his new role.
Eventually, the O’Connell offense and passing game caught fire under Behrens. The sidearming junior led two second-half scoring drives by throwing touchdown passes of 17 and 40 yards to Zach Harrison (three catches, 74 yards). Tyler Fontenot kicked two extra points.
The 40-yard scoring pass and point after cut the lead to 17-14 with 2:33 left in the game. The Saints recovered the ensuing onside kick with a 30-yard return that led to an eventual touchdown. A later 25-yard interception return for a touchdown ended the scoring.
“We got better on offense, got some momentum, started running the ball some, and I liked how we showed pride and fought back in the second half to make it a close game,” Sabatino said.
Behrens completed 17 of 30 passes for 206 yards. Aidan Joseph had seven catches for 62 yards, Frank Johnson had five for 32 and Aidan Munroe three for 38.
Mikhai Martin was O’Connell’s leading rusher with 29 yards. Nathan Harrison had 15 yards. O’Connell had negative rushing yards in the first half.
Leading the Knights’ defense was leading tackler Kellen McConnell, who had eight solo tackles and two for losses, with at least one sack, along with Joseph Wall, Jack Digges and Luke Trible. Nathan Harrison, Reagan MacGregor and Joe Williams were other leading tacklers. McConnell had multiple tackles for losses and Wall batted down a pass. Nathan Harrison also had eight solo tackles and three for losses
Munroe, Martin, Johnson and Matthew Harnisch broke up passes.
