In arguably the biggest upset in St. James Varsity football history,
the Trojans traveled half a mile down Vaughn Road to Catholic High
School to battle the undefeated and 7th ranked Knights for the 2A Area
5 championship and charged away with a 6 - 0 victory on a very muddy
field amidst an intermittent downpour.
Neither team could get much offense going in the messy conditions,
especially in the first half. Catholic was completely stifled,
running only 27 plays from scrimmage and netting only 38 yards of total
offense for the entire game. The key play of the game was at the
end of the Knights' first drive of the third quarter. A snap back
to the punter was fumbled and the Trojans took over at the Catholic
20. After converting a fourth down, St. James was faced with
another fourth down at the Catholic 1. Mark Berry took the
handoff and busted through the defensive line of the Knights for a
touchdown. The snap on the extra point was fumbled, but St. James
was up 6 - 0 in what would be the only points scored.
Nearly half of the Trojans' offense was gained on their only drive of
the fourth quarter, which took up almost ten of the twelve minutes on
the clock. St. James took over on their own 15 yard line on the
second play of the fourth quarter, and did not relinquish control of
the football until 1:32 remaining in the game at the Catholic 15 yard
line, turning the ball over on fourth down. On the next play, Ken
Klinger, who coincidentally would eventually become head varsity
basketball coach of both the Knights and the Trojans, sacked the
Catholic quarterback and the Knights could not recover, allowing the
Trojans to storm Lake Catholic with a huge upset win, an area
championship title (only their second ever), and their first home
playoff game since 1985 two weeks away.