Warriors Dig Deep, Rally for Victory
Photos by: Olivia Vanni
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Sept. 16, 2017 at 9:42 p.m.
Jacob Bordovsky didn’t like sitting on the St. Joseph bench in the fourth quarter Saturday afternoon at Memorial Stadium.
Bordovsky had pushed his body to the limit and painful cramping wouldn’t allow the sophomore quarterback on the field.
“I hated it,” Bordovsky said. “It hurts me not to be out there to lead my team and play. There was nothing I could do about it. It was an early game and I thought that I hydrated well. The cramps just became too much to handle.”
Bordovsky went 7-of-10 for 160 yards, and rushed for 129 yards and four touchdowns in the Flyers’ 35-34 loss to Tomball Christian.
The Warriors are the defending Texas Christian Athletic League state champions.
“Jacob has a lot of potential and is going to be a special player,” said St. Joseph coach Mike Hall. “I thought we did well on offense and executed better than our first game.
“On defense, we were able to get some turnovers, which was good because we told the players this week that they had a lot of skill players. We came up short, but overall the effort was there and a lot of young players stepped up.”
Bordovsky scored on a 4-yard touchdown run with 9 seconds left in the third quarter that gave the Flyers a 34-28 lead going into the fourth quarter.
The Warriors (1-1) took a 35-34 lead on the Flyers (0-2) when quarterback Ethan Wilkins threw an 11-yard pass to Nick Wolff.
Wilkins finished the game 4-of-8 for 189 yards and three touchdowns.
Wolff had three receptions for 179 yards and two touchdowns.
The Flyers’ defense caused two fumbles in the fourth quarter, but were able to turn those turnovers into points.
The offense had two fumbles without Bordovsky on the field.
“They’re a good football team,” Hall said. “I told the guys that I was proud of them for hanging in there and they just kept playing hard.”
The Flyers took a 20-14 lead over the Warriors at halftime with a touchdown runs of 20 and 4 yards from Bordovsky, and a 3-yard run by running back Payton Terrell.
Warriors running back Derek Gill threw a 70-yard halfback pass to Christian Vaughn for a touchdown and Elkins connected with Vaughn for a 10-yard scoring pass.
“We executed well on offense and made improvements from our first game,” said Terrell, who rushed for 82 yards. “My job is to never let the first defender get me. I’m going to keep fighting and I’m always expected to break the first tackle.”
Bordovsky connected with tight end Brodie Beck for 64 yards on the first play of the second half.
Bordovsky scored on a 1-yard quarterback keeper to give the Flyers a 28-14 lead.
“You have to give credit to the offensive line because they protected me and I got time to make some play for the team,” Bordovsky said. “A lot of people stepped up today, but we just didn’t get it done.”
Vaughn ran 43 yards for a touchdown and the Warriors tied the game on a 79-yard pass from Wilkins to Wolff.
“We had some mistakes in the secondary where we let them get by and that’s OK,” Hall said. “We will just have to learn, make corrections and get better as a team.”
The Flyers will travel to Vanderbilt on Friday to take on Industrial.
“We’re getting a lot better with each game that we play,” Hall said. “We came out a lot sharper than what we did in our first game. We saw what type of team we could be, and we will get back on the practice field this week and prepare for our next game.”