(St. Joseph) – The story of the game before the kickoff was about Elliot Uzelac’s return to St. Joseph, this time as the opposing coach.  

After the game it was about the dominating performance by the St. Joe offense and defense in a resounding 42-13 win over Uzelac’s Tigers.

St. Joe forced the Tigers to punt on their opening drive, then the St. Joe offense went to work, finding the endzone on a 7 play 46 yard drive, capped off by a 1 yard run by Bears Quarterback Griffin Beaudette. 

However the Tigers would knot the game at 7-7 on the next possession going 80 yards, the last two by Percy Brown and the game was tied.

But the game was all about the Bears in the second quarter.  The Bears outscored the Tigers 21-0 from the 13th to the 24th minute.

It started just 1:23 in to the quarter when Beaudette scored on a 25 yard run on a 2 play drive that took just 27 seconds.  Beaudette’s second touchdown of the day gave the Bears a 14-7 lead.

Beaudette would find the endzone again with 2:34 left in the half, on another 1 yard quarterback keeper and the Bears took a 21-7 lead.

However the Tigers went backwards on the next three plays and took only 33 seconds off the clock after the Bears called timeout to set up another score.  Which they did with 1:07 left in the half when Jake Sremba scored on a 3 yard run.  St. Joe had the lead at the half, leading 28-7.

St. Joe would start the third quarter off with a touchdown, after the Tigers kicked off, a long return by Deryk Atkins and a 15 yard penalty on the Tigers gave St. Joe the ball at the Tiger 35 yard line.  Sremba would find the endzone 6 plays later to put the Bears up 35-7.

St. Joe then turned to the freshman running back Darius Clayton in the final quarter.  Clayton scored his first varsity touchdown with 8:36 left in the final quarter and St. Joe had a 42-7 lead which began the MHSAA 35 point differential rule.

With the clock continuing to run and the Bears putting the second team defense in, the Tigers drove down the field and finished out the scoring on a 2 yard touchdown pass from Tim Bell to Allante Coates.