Early in the 4th quarter of a tense, tightly played game — with the score tied 21-21 — SLUH quarterback Trevor McDonagh connected on a short pass from the SLUH 27-yard line to Cameron Stubbs (left), who caught it at the 35 with a Lindbergh defender right on him.
Stubbs pivoted, then ran the opposite way 56 yards downfield, wiggling through eight — yes eight — Lindbergh defenders before finally being shoved out of bounds at the Lindbergh 9 yard line.
Three plays later, McDonagh scrambled into the endzone and the Jr. Billikens never looked back, defeating Lindbergh 35-21 and winning their sixth in a row and the district title.
This team ran through October and virtually no one noticed, because there was another team also running through October: The St. Louis Cardinals.
Right around the same time Stubbs was making his mad dash through the Lindbergh defense, Cardinal left fielder Allen Craig was about five miles east in left field at Busch Stadium, making his mad dash into the left field wall and robbing the Rangers’ Nelson Cruz of a home run. From that point on, the Cardinals never looked back. 25 million viewers on Fox saw that catch; a few hundred were in the stands to watch the game.
Can’t blame SLUH fans. Everyone in St. Louis will remember where they were on Oct. 28, 2011, the night the Cardinals won Game 7 and their 11th World Series. The fact that we were at a high school football game makes that all the sweeter because this mother wouldn’t want to have been anywhere else. Besides, it was Senior Night.
So in addition to watching our boys win, we were sharing the Cardinal experience the only way we know how. Where I was sitting, Jeff Williams was providing Cardinal updates from his headset radio while his son Dan was booting kickoffs into the endzone.
At halftime, half the stadium stood on the grass on the Upper Field to watch a small TV set up with the broadcast. And the game ended in plenty of time to get to the postgame party at Favazzas on the Hill, so parents and players shared the joy of watching Craig end the game when he tightly gripped the last out.
This marvelous Cardinals run will always be tied, in my memory, with Jr. Billiken football.
- When the season began on Aug.26 at Parkway North, the Cardinals were defeating the Pirates 5-4 on a Lance Berkman 8th-inning homerun. They had picked up a game in the standings, but at 91/2 out, who knew?
- When SLUH beat Vianney Sept. 23, the Cardinals were losing to Cubs and everyone thought their Wild Card chances were dead. That was the last time the Cardinals were written off, and the Vianney game was the start of SLUH’s winning streak.
- When SLUH beat Eureka Oct. 7, Chris Carpenter was pitching his 1-0 Game 5 gem that knocked the Phillies out of the National League Division Series, and a small group of parents were listening to the final out on the victory bus back from Eureka.
- When SLUH beat Mehlville Oct. 14, the Cardinals bullpen was wrapping a 7-1 victory over the Brewers in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series and the Cardinals were on another Happy Flight, one win from the World Series.
- When SLUH beat DeSmet Oct. 21, the World Series had an off night. But I honestly never thought I’d experience the emotion anytime soon of that come-from-behind, double overtime thriller at DeSmet. Six days later, guess what? Game 6 of the World Series. Exactly.
Photos by Nancy Winkelmann. View more SLUH varsity football at nancywinkelmann.zenfolio.com/varsitypix.
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