ST. PAUL — St. Paul’s Adam Albertini was at it again … this time at the expense of previously unbeaten West Elk.
Albertini rushed for 208 yards and accounted for all seven of his team’s scores, leading the Indians to a 52-6 victory over the Patriots in a pre-district tune-up.
“That Albertini kid is impressive,” said WEHS coach Chris Haag. “He is just a special player. I’m still upbeat after the game even though we got beat soundly. We did some positive things out there. We just made too many mistakes, especially penalty-wise, and a good team like St. Paul is going to take advantage of that.”
St. Paul remained unbeaten on the season at 3-0 overall, outscoring its three opponents by a combined score of 162-32. The Indians will next open up Eight Man II-District 1 action on Sept. 27 when they entertain Colony-Crest. The Lancers — now 1-2 overall — suffered a 60-0 loss to Maranatha Academy last week for a second straight setback.
As for West Elk, it suffered its first loss of the season in falling to 2-1 overall. The Patriots, who have already surpassed their win total from all of last season when they went 1-8, will open up Eight Man I-District 1 action on Sept. 27 at Central-Burden. The Raiders — last year’s district runner-up — are currently 0-3 overall following a 20-0 road loss to Udall last week.
It was the Albertini show once again as continued to run through the opposition. Albertini was a handful for the Patriots throughout the contest, including a 32-yard touchdown run and a 13-yard scoring strike to Easton Dent in the opening quarter for a 16-0 edge.
Albertini kept things going on touchdown runs of 22 and 39 yards early in the second quarter to extend the Indians’ lead to 30-0.
West Elk avoided the shutout on Nic Moreno’s 36-yard scoring scamper, but St. Paul found itself back in the end zone before halftime on a defensive score as Albertini picked off a pass and ran it back 68 yards to push the lead to 38-6 at the break.
The game came to a close in the third quarter on the eight-man mercy rule as Albertini tacked on two more scores on runs of 14 and seven yards.
St. Paul finished with a 310-147 advantage in total yardage. The Indians had 268 rushing yards, including Albertini’s 208 on 17 carries. The Patriots were led on the ground by Moreno with 13 rushes for 73 yards.
This was the 10th time St. Paul and West Elk had met on the football since 2010 — with the Indians taking six of those outings.