The life isn’t out of the Hannibal Pirates yet.
Just five days after losing to the Helias Crusaders 42-17, the Hannibal Pirates’ football team earned its first playoff win since 2006 when it beat Fort Zumwalt East 37-12 on the road.
Hannibal head coach Mark St Clair said the win did great things for his team’s confidence.
“I think our confidence level is going to be very high,” St Clair said. “We get to go back to practice. We told the kids beforehand that we didn’t want this to end because we enjoy being around them. We are honored to be out there coaching them.
After putting up less than half of its season average, the Pirates’ offense found its rhythm again, taking little time to do so. In their first four possessions, the Pirates posted three touchdowns, all of which came in the first half.
One of the big facilitating of those drives was the return of Hannibal’s Passing game. Two of the three touchdowns were pass plays where Pirate quarterback Charlie Fohey connected with Mat Sims from 25 and 13 yards out.
“We were watching film this week and Coach St Clair was telling Charlie and I that we could exploit their cornerbacks and that, if we did it, we’d make big plays,” Sims said. “Charlie was putting it on the money all night long and I was just able to make plays for him.”
The passing game was not the only aspect of the Pirates’ offense that was clicking Wednesday night. The first touchdown of the night came from a 1-yard rush by Nemes, who had more than 200 yards rushing in the contest against the Lions.
“We ran the ball tough,” St Clair said. “Mark is a handful. If he doesn’t fumble the ball those two times, he probably has 300 yards. … But that happens. It’s part of football and we’ll get all of that corrected.”
Also back in form was the Hannibal defense. While a shut out like the Pirates became accustomed to in the regular season wasn’t in the cards for the Pirates, the Hannibal defense did do a good job of stymieing the explosive Fort Zumwalt East offense, which came into the game averaging 32.9 points per game, to just one touchdown per quarter in the first half.
The third quarter looked like a clone of the first, but better. While Sims hooked up with Fohey two more times for touchdowns, the duo increased their range, striking from 36 an 24 yards out.
In total, Fohey was 6-for-8 passing with 113 yards. For all of his success, however, Fohey was quick to shine the light on his teammates.
“We definitely hit a rhythm today, but all the credit goes to the men up front — the offensive line,” Fohey said. “They did a great job. They made me comfortable in the pocket and I was just able to hook up with Mat.”
Rounding things out, Sims booted a 44-yard field goal in the third quarter to put the Pirates up. However, that was not the field goal that left the stands abuzz at the end of the night. Sims took a stab at a 49-yard field goal in the fourth quarter, which would have given him the school record had he made it.
“We’ve got a cannon kicker and we are going to fire it,” St Clair said.
Along with the second half fireworks, the defense showed also showed a step up in performance, blanking the Lions for the final two quarters. The defense also came up with two fumble recoveries in the second half, putting the ball back in the Pirates’ hands, which made it easier for the Pirates to find the end zone more often.
With a 42-7 Crusader victory against Warrenton, Hannibal now gets a second chance to take on Helias, this time in Jefferson City. With both teams familiar with each other, St Clair said if his team can make certain adjustments, they should find more success this go-round.
“We’ve got to get off blocks better than we did last week and we’ve got to take care of the football,” St Clair said. “We’ll wait until Monday night to see how it pans out, but our job, right now as coaches, is to get a game plan ready and get our kinds in a situation where they can be successful.”
