Gage Patrick suspected he might be busy on Friday.
“I had an idea that I’d get a lot of carries,” the 5-foot-5, 166-pound St. Xavier junior running back said.
Patrick, running mostly between the tackles, gained 110 yards and scored three touchdowns on 29 carries. Sophomore quarterback Chase Herbstreit was 12-of-24 for 232 yards and a touchdown and ninth-seeded St. Xavier (5-6) came from behind twice before pulling away for a 42-28 win over eighth-seeded Fairfield (7-4) in a Division I Region 4 first-round playoff game at Fairfield’s Alumni Stadium.
“It was amazing,” Patrick said. “I can’t say enough about the job the offensive line did.”
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St. Xavier (5-6) has won three of its last four games after a three-game losing streak and is scheduled to play top-seeded and 10-1 Moeller in the second round next Friday. The Crusaders advanced with a 39-14 win over 16th-seeded Hamilton.
“Hey, everybody’s 0-0,” St. Xavier coach Steve Specht. “We’re excited to be moving on.”
St. Xavier’s bag of tricks included a 44-yard touchdown pass from senior wide receiver Jamaal Sharp, the GCL South’s leading receiver, to junior wide receiver Jack McClatchey, and a two-point conversion during which Herbstreit looked frantically to the sideline as if confused while the ball was snapped directly to Patrick, who took it in for a 28-21 lead.
Fairfield junior quarterback Talon Fisher, the Greater Miami Conference’s leading rusher and fourth-leading passer during the regular season, gained 204 yards and scored three touchdowns on the ground and threw for a fourth score, but it wasn’t enough to keep the Indians from suffering their third loss in their last four games on the way to finishing 7-4.
Bomber defenders Max Bonner and Noah Beck each recovered Fairfield fumbles and turned them into a combined 11 points, including Patrick’s three-yard touchdown run that gave St. Xavier that 28-21 lead with 4:31 left in the third quarter. The Indians came back to tie the score, but they never could regain the lead.
“In Week 11 against a good football team, you can’t give up turnovers like that,” said Fairfield coach Jason Krause, who was on crutches with his knee in a large, black plastic brace. “That one stung.”
Fisher immediately answered with a 75-yard scoring run on Fairfield’s first play from scrimmage, helping the Indians tie the score, but Greater Catholic League South Division Bombers put together back-to-back scoring drives of nine and 12 plays to take command.
“We couldn’t get off the field,” Krause said. “Then we had to get outside of our playbook a little bit.”
“That was a really good game,” Specht said. “It was back-and-forth for a while. We just made a couple of more plays.
St. Xavier High School vs. Fairfield
St. Xavier 3-14-18-7 – 42
Fairfield 7-7-14-0 – 28F – Fisher 51 run (McGuire kick)
St. X – Cengia 25 field goal
St. X – McClatchey 44 pass from Sharp (Cengia kick)
St. X – Patrick 5 run (Cengia kick)
F – Figgins 75 pass from Fisher (McGuire kick)
F – Fisher 6 run (McGuire kick)
St. X – Cengia 28 field goal
St. X – Patrick 3 run (Patrick run)
F – Fisher 75 run (McGuire kick)
St. X – Scheve 19 pass from Herbstreit (Cengia kick)
St. X – Patrick 1 run (Cengia kick)
Records: St. Xavier 5-6, Fairfield 7-4.
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