Saint Xavier (Ill.) 55, Taylor 31
But Taylor's opponent, Saint Xavier of Chicago, was the defending NAIA champion and No. 1-ranked NAIA team for several weeks in the 2012 season until a loss to St. Francis (Ind.). The Cougars entered the game ranked sixth; Marian University of Indianapolis was No. 1.
Taylor surprised a lot of people early on Saturday, and certainly the Cougars were among those. After Saint Xavier scored first on a touchdown pass from Jimmy Coy to Chase Catton, the Trojans scored three touchdowns on Nick Freeman passes -- all still in the first quarter -- and squeezed in a successful, surprise onside kick in between -- to lead 21-7.
Coy, Saint Xavier’s senior quarterback, responded with an aerial attack of his own, going 47 yards to Shane Zackery with 1:57 left in the first quarter for one TD, then threw another 24 yards to Nick DeBenedetti with 3:29 left in the second quarter to tie the score at 21.The Trojans regained the lead with 13 seconds left in the half when Alex Eichert kicked an 18-yard field goal, giving the Trojans a 24-21 lead at the midway point. Unfortunately, that was the high point for the Trojans.
Saint Xavier owned the second half, scoring five consecutive TDs before a fourth-quarter Taylor touchdown ended the day's scoring in the Cougars' 55-31 victory. Coy ended up passing for 414 yards and threw for a school record-tying seven touchdowns, three of them to Catton.
Saint Xavier junior running back Nick Pesek's 182 yards rushing (on 18 carries) boosted his career total to 1,979 and established him as the school's all-time leading rusher. The ball carrier you see in the photo leading off this post is not Pesek; it's sophomore Joshua Hunter.
Taylor quarterback Nick Freeman was almost as prolific as Coy in the air -- he passed for 347 yards and all four of the Trojans' TDs.
The Cougars amassed 629 yards of total offense and earned 20 of their 26 first downs by passing the ball. Incredibly, the home team Trojans owned the edge on time of offensive possession, 31 minutes and 24 seconds to Saint Xavier's 28:36.
Saint Xavier would finish the regular season with three wins, including a 23-6 upset of top-rated Marian at home, earning an invitation to the NAIA postseason tournament. The Cougars beat William Penn University and the University of the Cumberlands (Williamsburg, Ky.) in the first two rounds of the tournament at home before losing at Morningside (Sioux City, Iowa), 47-19, in the semifinals.Taylor lost to No. 6 St. Francis (Ind.) at Fort Wayne 21-0 the week after this game and defeated Olivet Nazarene (Bourbonnais, Ill.) at home 22-15 in its season finale, finishing 4-5.
To view a full gallery of images from this game, follow the link in this sentence.
Above: Saint Xavier scored on the first possession of the game with this 3-yard pass from Jimmy Coy to Chase Catton. I had a bit of a rush as this pass came toward me. I'm grateful Catton had sure hands and snagged it; if the ball had somehow slipped through his hands, it might have come right at me.
Above: Trojans' tight end Jake Foster heads to the ground after this tackle following an 11-yard pass reception.
Darvon Blackmon (above) nears the end zone to score on a 50-yard pass reception, Taylor's second touchdown of the game. The score capped a drive that began when Taylor recovered an onside kickoff following its first TD. Below, teammate Taylor Johnson (23) joins Blackmon for a jump bump to celebrate the score.
Jared Perkins (above) hauled in a pass from Nick Freeman and trotted into the end zone to score on a play that covered 29 yards and increased Taylor's lead to 21-7 in the first quarter. Below, Freeman (left) joined Perkins for a celebratory jump bump.
Saint Xavier's Nick Pesek (32) is tackled at the end of a short run by Taylor's Caleb Hemmick (above). Pesek set a career yardage rushing mark for Saint Xavier in this game, but one moment he'd like to forget is a fumble near the goal line (below), when Taylor defensive lineman Cody Schwerin jarred the ball free from Pesek's grasp before the running back could cross the goal line. The ball bounced into the end zone, where the Trojans' Adam Sauder recovered it for a touchback.
Above: This hit by Saint Xavier's Blake Wheeler on Nick Freeman would draw a penalty flag and help keep Taylor's final first-half drive alive, leading to the lead-grabbing field goal by Alec Eickert.
The photo above and the next five below are from the same sequence of an odd play in the second half. Pressured by the Saint Xavier rush, Taylor's Nick Freeman (above) hurried a pass that was heading over the head of intended receiver Robbie Robbins (11). Robbins jumped to try and knock the ball down (first photo below), presumably so he'd have a chance to catch the deflection. But as seen in the third photo below, the ball drifted away from him ... and toward offensive lineman Steven Medlock (67), who by now had turned his head around to investigate. Seeing the ball drift his way, Medlock snagged it (fourth photo below) then was tackled immediately (fifth photo below). The reception, most likely the only one Medlock will ever have in his college career, netted 3 yards for the Trojans.
Chase Catton (above) had already scored his second TD pass of the day to begin Saint Xavier's thundering third-quarter rally and came close to getting his third on this play. But field officials correctly ruled that Catton had made contact with the ground before turning around to reach the ball into the end zone as you see here. The Cougars' momentum was delayed only temporarily; on the very next play, Wes Gastel (below) ran it in for the score.
Above: Catton (just out of the frame on the right) did get his third TD score of the day on this pass thrown by Coy with 54 seconds left to play in the third quarter. With the extra point kick, Saint Xaiver's lead improved to 34-24.
Above: Saint Xavier's Nick DeBenedetti scored his second TD of the day on this 27-yard reception of a Jimmy Coy pass in the fourth quarter, increasing the Cougars' lead to 48-24. DeBenedetti reached the end zone before either of two Taylor defenders could get close enough to threaten to stop the score.
Above: After DeBenedetti's score and another TD on a 60-yard pass from Coy to Gastel not long afterward, a number of birds started to fly over the stadium. Several metaphors came to mind, but I tried to focus on ascertaining what species these were, to no avail.
Above and next two below: Taylor's fortunes in the second half were epitomized by this play, a quick side pass by Nick Freeman to Jake Fidler (4), but Fidler couldn't reel it in, and it fell harmless to the ground.
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