Belleville News-Democrat
After watching his team beat the Althoff Crusaders for the fourth year in a row, new Belleville West coach Cameron Pettus seemed much more happy about that streak than his first career victory.
Kyle Leadlove threw a pair of second-half touchdown passes to tight end Donnie Foster and the Maroons pounded out a 24-6 victory over the Crusaders.
"Any time you can beat Althoff in a classic game like this, that's great," said Pettus, who didn't spent much time dwelling on his first win. "It's kind of bittersweet I guess. I never think about what I've done; it's always what's got to be done next. I'm already thinking about O'Fallon."
It was just the opposite for Althoff coach Ken Turner, whose 1-1 squad was held in check most of the night by the West defense and its own mistakes.
"We just didn't play a good ball game tonight," Turner said. "We were not good tonight and that's my fault. We won't be that way for the rest of the season. I'm disappointed and a little bit upset, but we didn't do anything well."
Leadlove completed 11-of-23 passes for 119 yards as the Maroons (1-1) hurt the Crusaders by balancing the run and the pass.
"I love that young man because not only is he a good kid, but I think he's a pretty talented quarterback," Pettus said. "(The offense) took another step tonight, they sure did. They've got a long way to go, but they're getting better and that's all we can ask."
West opened the game with a 54-yard scoring drive as Deonte McCarvey banged his way into the end zone from 6 yards out.
A 40-yard run by Althoff's Kameron Harris and 15-yard personal foul penalty on the Maroons gave Althoff a prime scoring chance on its next possession.
The Crusaders had a second-and-one at the West 5-yard line, but three consecutive runs by Nesh Quarles only got them to the 4.
On fourth-and-one, Quarles was hauled down by Pierre Gee-Taylor and others well short of the first down.
A 29-yard field goal by Belleville West freshman Austin Seibert with 6:05 remaining in the first half pushed the lead to 10-0.
Althoff failed to cash in on another scoring opportunity when John Braxmeier was wide right on a 30-yard field goal attempt with three minutes remaining in the second quarter.
An 80-yard touchdown run by West's Keith Harris with 2:42 left in the first half was called back on a holding penalty.
Althoff's Garland Henley fumbled the second-half kickoff and the Maroons quickly capitalized when Leadlove hit Foster for a 3-yard TD pass.
A short punt by the Crusaders set up Belleville West at the Althoff 28-yard line and Leadlove was back in business.
Foster hauled in a pass over the middle, slipped a tackle and sprinted 28 yards into the end zone. Seibert's extra-point pushed the Maroons' lead to 24-0.
"Credit to them for winning the football game, but we did everything wrong tonight," Turner said. "It was a game we felt like we could win going into it. We felt strong about it."
Althoff back Kameron Harris had 103 yards on 19 carries, but the Crusaders' offense struggled against an improved West defense missing two injured starters.
Althoff quarterback Eric Mertens was 13-of-32 passing for 161 yards. Mertens tossed a 14-yard TD pass to Luke Frazier with 10:18 remaining in the fourth quarter to break the shutout, but the 2-point conversion failed when Mertens was sacked by Kyle Sweeney.
"We're just having problems putting everything together right now," Turner said. "I don't know if it's because we're young at a lot of spots ... but I'm going to figure it out this week though.
"We won't be the same ballclub that we were tonight the rest of the season."
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