In the late evening of Friday Oct. 18, the football team was in the midst of a major comeback against Helias Catholic High School in Jefferson City. After falling behind early in the game, the Bruins attempted a season-defining comeback to keep their season alive. But when the clock reached double-zeros, the Bruins fell short, losing with a final score of 20-27. Now sitting 3-5 on the season, the Bruins are now guaranteed a losing record heading into their final game against Francis Howell High School on Friday Oct. 25 at 7 p.m.
In the beginning, senior Will Norris made a long field goal to put RBHS up 3-0 with 7:27 left in the first quarter. Helias then struck quickly in the second quarter, scoring a touchdown early, making the score 3-7 with 7:58 left in the second quarter. Helias would score again after a blocked punt allowing Helias to work with a short field. Going into the half, the Bruins trailed 3-14.
“I thought we started slow. It’s kind of been our problem all year,” senior quarterback Grant Hajicek said. “We kind of dug ourselves a hole at the beginning, and it was too big to get out of despite a good comeback at the end.”
At the start of the third quarter, Heilas scored a school record 50-yard field goal. Junior Bryce Jackson then scored a touchdown for the Bruins near the end of the third quarter. Shooting back, Heilas made another field goal and scored another touchdown with 57 seconds left on the clock. This gave Helias a 27-10 lead going into the fourth quarter.
“When everyone works together in tandem and supports one another we will have success.” junior offensive lineman Xavier Forte said.
Hajicek then connected on a touchdown pass to senior Brett Mooney, shrinking the deficit to 10 points with just over 10 minutes left to play. Norris converted another field goal to make the score a one possession game. But despite a second half surge in which the Bruins outscored Helias by four points, Heilas won the game.
“We really got going on both sides at the end. It takes everyone to do their job and once we started to do that, we were effective,” Hajicek said. “Just too little too late.”
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