The St. Anne Saints were in the drivers seat during Wednesday's season opener winning 16-0 against Cardinal Carter late in the first half. Then something familiar happened. The Cougars came back like they did in last year's opener when they trailed 22-12.
2nd year quarterback Matt Neufeld tossed a 4-yard pass TD to Evan Taveres and on the next series Matt Herrera had a pick-6. Both conversion attempts failed but CC was back in the game trailing 16-12 at the half which made St. Anne head coach Zach Papineau a bit nervous. "Ya, 100%. Made some adjustments. Picked it up in the second half and got the win."
The Saints got a big boost from what started off as a poor kick off return. Mattia Roma let the kickoff bounce by him into the end zone much to the bewilderment of many on the St. Anne sideline. He ran five yards into the end zone, picked up the ball and turned a poor start into a spectacular finish racing the full length of the field for the TD. "Huge." Papineau said. "Completely changed the game. It was a real good play by a veteran player.
Roma didn't think he was going to catch the ball so he says he let it roll into the endzone. "I got pretty luck on the return on the edge. I thought I was going to get pushed out of bounds but nobody ended up there and I just ran all the way."
St. Anne won 38-18 and feel good about getting their season off on the right foot this season. "We got depth everywhere. We're a real good team. We just have to eliminate the mistakes." Papineau said.
Despite the loss, 2nd year quarterback Matt Neufeld feels good about Cardinal Carter's team this season. "I think we played a good game. I think we're only going to get better. I think we'll be ok."
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