St. Margaret’s Overcomes Tricky Foe

Bloomington Christian’s baffling offense had St. Margaret’s spinning in circles during the first quarter Saturday night. After that, Bloomington Christian just spun its wheels.

St. Margaret’s recovered four consecutive fumbles in the second half and scored 22 unanswered points to defeat the Ravens, 35-12, in a nonleague football game at Saddleback College.

Bloomington Christian intercepted a pass from Dillon Gilbert on the third play of the game and proceeded to score using offensive trickery.

The Ravens huddle near their sideline, then move to the line of scrimmage in a tight formation with the running backs just a yard behind the line. They usually fake several handoffs, before giving the ball to a back.

The gadgets worked on the Ravens’ first series, and they quickly grabbed a 6-0 lead on Mike Morales’ six-yard touchdown run.

St. Margaret’s needed just three plays to take the lead away. Gilbert found Jon Masters for a 37-yard gain to the Ravens’ 20, and on the next play Gilbert connected with Justin Jameson in the end zone.

Bloomington Christian caught the Tartans off-guard on the first play of the second quarter.

As St. Margaret’s was setting up its defense after changing sides, the Raven center snapped the ball to the sideline where the rest of his teammates were in a huddle. Morales caught the snap and easily raced 11 yards for the score on fourth down.

It would be the last time St. Margaret’s would be fooled on that play. The Tartans’ line kept a close eye on the center the remainder of the game, and nearly intercepted a snap late in the second quarter.

St. Margaret’s went ahead, 13-12, with 7:08 left in the first half. Twice the Tartans scored on long pass plays only to have them negated by clipping penalties. After Bloomington Christian was called for pass interference in the end zone, Masters scored on a two-yard touchdown pass from Gilbert.

St. Margaret’s increased its lead to 21-12 in the third quarter on a great effort by Jameson. The senior caught a short pass at the Ravens’ 25-yard line and broke two tackles before racing the final 20 yards untouched.

After Morales fumbled the first of his three turnovers on the Ravens’ next possession, Gilbert, who completed 16 of 33 passes for 180 yards, found Masters for six.