St. Francis did everything it took to win Thursday’s Angelus League opener at St. Paul.

The Golden Knights more than quadrupled what the St. Paul defense allows weekly, and the SFHS defense held the Swordsmen to 17 points under their average.

St. Francis was able to outlast St. Paul, 26-20, and handed the Swordsmen their first defeat of 2021.

Isaiah Dunn threw two TD passes to Jordan Williams and a 60-yarder to Aidan Bravo for St. Paul.

St. Francis got TD runs of 4 and 20 yards from Max Garrison in the second half.

Garrison finished with 140 yards rushing.

St. Francis kicker Clint Geryak had crucial field goals from 31 and 43 yards in the win.

Jack Jacobs rumbled in from 10 yards out in the first quarter to pull the Golden Knights even with St. Paul at 7-7.

But it can’t be overstated how well the Golden Knights defense played throughout.

And once the St. Francis running game found its stride in the second half, the Golden Knights were able to control the time of possession battle.

Up next: St. Francis will host Loyola (5-2) next Friday.

Quotable:

St. Francis senior, Max Garrison: “I think our first half of football wasn’t our best brand of football and we tried to figure it out and went back to our ground game. We used the running game to run the clock out and wearing down their
Clint has played a huge part in our wins. He comes out cool as a cucumber and just knocks them down. He’s really grown as a player. Coach Gibbons came up with a great game plan and our defense carried it out really well. I am just so proud of my coaches and teammates, because I feel like we got solid contributions from our offense, defense and special teams.”

Box Score:
SF: 10-3-6-7-(26)
SP: 14-0-0-6-(20)

Scoring:
SP: Aidan Bravo 60 pass from Isaiah Dunn (kick good)
SF: Jack Jacobs 10 run (Clint Geryak kick)
SP: Jordan Williams 68 pass from Isaiah Dunn (kick good)
SF: Clint Geryak 31 FG
SF: Clint Geryak 43 FG
SF: Max Garrison 4 run (pass failed attempt failed)
SF: Max Garrison 20 run (Clint Geryak kick)
SP: Jordan Williams 7 pass from Isaiah Dunn (pass failed)

Records: St. Francis (6-1, 1-0); St. Paul (6-1, 0-1)