By STUART GROSKREUTZ
September 21, 2011

OAK PARK HEIGHTS - Defense hasn't always been a trademark of the Cretin-Derham Hall football program, but the Raiders brought the shoulder pads on Friday while stopping Stillwater 34-7 in a match-up of Suburban East Conference unbeatens at Pony Stadium.

The Ponies (2-1 SEC, 2-1) were limited to a season-low 193 yards and just seven first downs as Cretin-Derham Hall snapped a two-game losing streak in the series. The Raiders (3-0, 3-0) also moved to the forefront of the conference title chase as the only remaining conference team without a loss. Cretin-Derham Hall shared the league title with Stillwater and Mounds View a year ago.

Stillwater's victory over the Raiders last fall was one of the more memorable regular season games in the program's rich history, but Friday was one the Ponies would sooner forget - especially after quarterback Nate Ricci left the game with a sprained ankle early in the fourth quarter.

"I don't think this is a reflection of who we are," Stillwater coach Beau LaBore said. "It's obviously disappointing. We didn't play very physically, although our defense hung in there and gave us chances. We didn't make any of the close plays and Cretin did, so they deserve some credit for that."

The Ponies managed just three first downs during a lackluster opening half, but didn't go away while trailing 13-0 at the intermission. Stillwater totaled 115 yards in the first half, but 104 of those came on a 68-yard pass play from Ricci to Joshua Weess and a 36-yard run by Ricci. Outside of those long gainers, the Ponies managed just 11 yards on their remaining 30 plays in the half.

"Our success this season has been based on playing well on the line of scrimmage and we didn't play well on the line of scrimmage offensively," LaBore said. "We emptied the playbook and we tried just about everything that we have."

Cretin-Derham Hall's hard-hitting defense was more than enough to offset the sometimes sporadic play of its offense, which was led by Kendrik Brewster's 134 yards on just 13 rushes.

"This is going to come off really bad, but I think we could have scored 50," Raiders coach Mike Scanlon said. "The defense kept giving us the ball and we just would not take advantage of it. It's hard to imagine putting up 34 points and being disappointed about how you played on offense, but it's still a work in progress."

Stillwater took the ball to start the second half, but after another three-and-out, the Raiders marched 58 yards in six plays to grab a 20-0 lead when Cortez Tillman hauled in a 14-yard touchdown pass from Kevin Miley.

That marked the start of a 21-point third quarter as the Raiders pulled away.

The Ponies finished with just 21 yards on 13 plays in the third, including two turnovers. DJ Palmer returned the first of his two interceptions down to the 3 to help set up a 1-yard plunge by quarterback Conor Rhoda for a 27-0 lead.

Cretin-Derham Hall got the ball right back after stuffing the Ponies again and needed just three plays for Rhoda to hook up with Maxwell Gardner for a 39-yard scoring pass and Stillwater's 13-point deficit turned into a 34-0 Cretin-Derham Hall lead during a five-minute window.

"I thought they were very fast, very physical and they didn't leave a whole lot of opportunities for us to crawl out of bad situations," LaBore said.

Many of those bad situations were created by Cretin-Derham Hall's Jonathan Harden, a 6-foot-0, 300-pound defensive tackle who was making plays all night.

"He's the biggest guy on the field and he's the quickest guy on the field and he loves playing football, so that's a pretty good combination," LaBore said.

Ricci accounted for 64 rushing yards on 18 attempts and completed 5 of 20 passes for 93 yards. The junior, who took several big hits before suffering the ankle injury, carried much of the load offensively.

"He's the best kid we've seen in a long time," Scanlon said. "You've got to be real careful with him. We wanted to contain and put pressure on him. He's their offense and that kid is good. He's the best kid we've played against so far this year."

Stillwater avoided the shutout after scoring on a four-play drive midway through the fourth quarter - all runs by Nick Anderson. The drive started at the Cretin-Derham Hall 36 and ended with Anderson scoring from 3 yards out to trail 34-7. Prior to that series, however, the junior was limited to just 4 yards on eight attempts.

"They definitely brought the shoulder pads more than us," LaBore said.

The Raiders were marching on their first possession of the game until Charlie Register intercepted a pass by Miley. Any momentum gained by that stop was quickly lost as the Ponies fumbled the ball right back on their first play of the game.

Cretin-Derham Hall responded quickly with a 25-yard run by Brewster and a 14-yard hook-up from Miley to James Onwualu. Two plays later, Miley found Onwualu again for a 15-yard scoring pass for a 7-0 lead with 8:53 remaining in the quarter.

The Raiders added to their lead in the second quarter as Brewster cut right up the middle of the field for a 48-yard touchdown and a 13-0 lead with 6:30 remaining in the half.

"I would say the defense hung in there," LaBore said. "You get to start (the second half) with the ball and if you can put a drive together there you might have an opportunity."

That opportunity never materialized after three plays and a punt to start the second half and Cretin-Derham Hall scored on each of its next three possessions to put the game out of reach.

Stillwater's recent success - victories each of the past two years - did not continue against the Raiders, who have posted a 45-3 record in six-plus seasons in the SEC. Scanlon said those setbacks did not provide any additional motivation than normal.

"It's a different team," the coach said. "You want to be able to play well out here regardless of whether they've beaten you two times or 20 times in a row. It's a different team, a different year. We didn't mention it all week. I remember it, but it doesn't make any sense to harp on it."

The loss makes a third consecutive league title unlikely for the Ponies - now that the Raiders have upended each of the other top three finishers in the conference from a year ago (East Ridge, Mounds View and Stillwater) in the first three weeks of the season.

"We just have to get back to work on Monday," LaBore said. "We've got a lot of season left, a lot of fun to have and a lot of opportunities to go out and do something. We just have to get back to work."

The extent of Ricci's injury may play a big role in that. He racked up 169 all-purpose yards against the Raiders and ran or passed on 38 of 57 plays.

Stillwater received some good news prior to Friday's game with the return of all-conference defensive tackle Cartier Alexander, a senior captain who can also line up in the backfield on offense.

"He's an anchor and he's a very good football player," LaBore said. "He's going to make us a lot better as the season goes on."

Cretin-Derham Hall: 7-6-21-0 - 34
Stillwater: 0-0-0-7 - 7

C-DH - James Onwualu 15 pass from Kevin Miley (Zachary Hager kick) 8:53.
C-DH - Kendrik Brewster 48 run (kick failed) 6:39.
C-DH - Cortez Tillman 14 pass from Miley (Hager kick) 7:58.
C-DH - Conor Rhoda 1 run (Hager kick) 6:20.
C-DH - Maxwell Gardner 39 pass from Rhoda (Hager kick) 3:24.
St - Nick Anderson 3 run (Sam Pearson kick) 6:13.

Team stats

First downs: CDH 15, St 7
Rushes-yards: CDH 42-182, St 34-100
Passing yards: CDH 150, St 93
Total yards: CDH 332, St 193
Comp-Att-Int: CDH 11-19-1, St 5-23-3
Fumbles/lost: CDH 2/1, St 1/1
Penalties/yards: CDH 8/74, St 4/38
Punts/avg: CDH 7/28.3 St 7/28.1

Individual statistics

Rushing - C-DH: Kendrik Brewster 13-134, Joe Reed 10-29, Michael Bins 6-14, Conor Rhoda 3-3, Kevin Miley 4-2 and James Onwualu 6-0; St: Nate Ricci 18-64, Nick Anderson 12-41, Michael Drahnak 1-3, Nate Law 2-(-1) and Zach Krenz 1-(-7).

Passing (com-att-yds-td-int) - C-DH: Kevin Miley 8-12-101-2-1 and Conor Rhoda 3-7-49-1-0; St: Nate Ricci 5-20-93-0-2 and Aaron Romportl 0-3-0-0-1.

Receiving - C-DH: James Onwualu 3-45, Kendrik Brewster 4-42, Maxwell Gardner 1-39 and Cortez Tillman 3-24; St: Joshua Weess 4-79 and Grant Moden 1-14.

Kickoff returns - C-DH: Joe Reed 1-20 and Michael Bins 1-16; St: Charlie Register 4-56.

Punt returns - C-DH: Cortez Tillman 1-6; St: Nate Ricci 1-12, Charlie Register 2-11 and Tait Delahunt 1-(-2).

Interceptions - C-DH: DJ Palmer 2-22 and Antonio Erskin 1-0; St: Charlie Register 1-39.

Fumble recoveries - C-DH: Shane Hennessey 1-0; St: Sam Brynestad 1-0.