Indians Win Season Opener
September 04, 2009
The St. Francis Indians opened the 2009 football season with a win over the Colby Eagles on Friday night, September 4th at Dennon Field in Colby. Colby lead throughout most of the the game, but the Indians kept pounding away and gained a hard earned victory over a good Colby team.
Colby scored near the middle of the first period to take an early 0-8 lead. Trent Raile scored his first touchdown of the season when he ran for 16 yards with 6:09 remaining in the first half. The conversion run was good. The game was tied at halftime 8-8.
Colby scored again early in the third quarter to take a 8-14 lead. On the next possession, St. Francis moved the ball down the field and earned first and goal at the 6 yard line. Colby's defense held tough, but on fourth and goal, Trent Raile ran for a 4 yard touchdown to tie the game at 14 with 4:58 left in the third quarter. The conversion attempt was no good.
Colby had two big plays in their next possession; a 20 yard run by quarterback Kale Arnberger and a 30 yard pass from Arnberger to Corbin Stevens which moved the Eagles to the St. Francis 17 yard line. Colby advanced the ball to earn a second and goal on the 1 yard line. The Indian defense held strong, but on fourth down, Ethan Stickel ran for a 3 yard touchdown on a pitch play over the right side. The conversion run was also good. The Eagles were ahead again, 14-22, with 29 seconds remaining in the third quarter.
On the next St. Francis possession, quarterback Matt Raile scored on a 45 yard keeper around the left end with 9:29 to go. Trent Raile was stopped on the conversion attempt over the left side and Colby held a 20-22 advantage.
The St. Francis defenders slowed the Colby offense and forced them to punt on their next possession. Matt Raile started the next Indian possession with a long run to the Colby 36 yard line with 5:51 remaining in the game. Trent Raile scored the go-ahead touchdown on a 3 yard run with 2:49 to go giving St. Francis a 26-22 advantage. Trent also scored the conversion points to gain a valuable 6 point advantage, 28-22.
Colby moved the ball some on their next possession, but the Indian defense finally gained an advantage over the Colby offense and Colby was forced to turn over the ball on downs with 0:52 remaining in the game. St. Francis kneeled down on their next few snaps to allow the clock to expire.
St. Francis continued their winning streak over Colby. Colby has not beaten the Indians since sometime in the 1990's. This win was Coach Nathan Smith's first victory as head coach of the Indians.
Congratulations, players and coaches, on a hard fought victory!
