St. Rita prevails in battle of ranked teams

It took only one minute for an old nemesis -- the kicking game --to find Hubbard.

A bad snap that led to a blocked punt gave St. Rita possession atthe Greyhounds' 1, and Darieon Hood was in the end zone three secondslater. A fourth-quarter fumble recovery returned for a touchdown thenthwarted a Hubbard comeback and lifted the No. 7 Mustangs to a 19-8victory Saturday in the third and final game of the Kickoff Classicat Soldier Field.

"Our defense just came up huge," St. Rita coach Todd Kuska said."We got some guys banged up a little and had some second-team guys inthere, but it was great effort by everybody."

Darius Fleming blocked the punt and recovered it. Hood's firsttouchdown came with 10:57 left in the first quarter.

After St. Rita's defense held, Hood scored again on an 11-yard runwith 7:06 left in the first quarter to cap a six-play, 37-yard driveafter a short punt. Hood caught a shovel pass for a 19-yard gain theplay before his touchdown run. The kick made it 13-0.

No. 6 Hubbard got down to the Mustangs' 5 late in the firstquarter before a holding call stalled the drive. A 27-yard field-goal try was wide after a bad snap on the first play of the secondquarter.

Hubbard got on the board after Darius Purcell recovered a fumbleat the St. Rita 43. On fourth-and-two, Robert Hughes scored on a 35-yard run. A two-point conversion run by quarterback Sean Cattousemade it 13-8 with 4:37 left in the third quarter.

Hubbard drove into St. Rita territory with less than six minutesto play, but Cattouse fumbled on fourth-and-four. D'Marcus Dullenscooped it up and returned it 56 yards to give the Mustangs a 19-8lead.

"I just knew I had to get the ball and make a play," Dullen said."I knew I had to keep on running."

"You can't blame it all on the kicking game; we had other problemsthat have to be addressed," Hubbard coach Elton Harris said. "Whenyou drop passes and get penalties that take you out of scoring, it'smore than just that."

FENWICK 37, SIMEON 28: Simeon tight end Martez Wilson came in withthe big name, but Fenwick quarterback Brien Rooney played the biggame in leading the Friars to victory.

The Wolverines struck first, taking a 6-0 lead on an eight-yardscoring run with 9:19 left in the first quarter, but Rooney respondedby engineering a seven-play, 62-yard drive and scoring on a 24-yardrun with 4:57 left in the quarter to tie the score at 6.

Austin Gordon then picked off a pass by Jack Ramsey and went 67yards to give the Friars a 13-6 lead.

Rooney scored his second touchdown of the first half on an 11-yard run to push the lead to 19-6. Patrick Doyle closed out the first-half scoring with a 26-yard run that gave the Friars a comfortable 27-6 lead.

Fenwick opened the third quarter with a 95-yard kickoff return byColin Tobin to take a 34-6 lead.

"This is what it's all about," said Rooney, a three-year starter."This is the hardest we've worked getting ready for the season sinceI've been here. We wanted to represent the Catholic League, and wethink we did a good job on a big stage."

stucker@suntimes.com