Althoff breezes to win in opener

BELLEVILLE -- This year, Althoff quarterback Brady Nowak and his teammates played more of a complete game in their season opener against Northwest Academy.

Nowak completed 16 of 22 passes for 261 yards and four touchdowns as the Crusaders romped over the (St. Louis) Northwest Academy Hornets 44-0 Friday night.

The Crusaders routed Northwest Academy 41-0 last year, riding the legs of former Crusader running back Keith Chism to the victory.

"Last year, I felt like our defense played good enough for us to win, but we didn't play a good game,'' Althoff coach Ken Turner said. "We relied on our running back breaking tackles to win the game. This year, I felt like we had four or five guys who contributed to what we did starting with Brady, starting with the guys he threw the ball to. He spread it around, and the guys made plays tonight.''

Nowak overthrew a couple of early passes, but then got hot. He had a stretch of four touchdown passes on five attempts from the second to third quarter.

Nowak got some help from his receivers. Pat McGlynn caught a ball off his shoe tops on a 4-yard touchdown reception, Brendan Phillips turned a short pass into a 40-yard touchdown reception and Jabari Taylor had 69-yard touchdown catch despite having to come back a good 10 yards for the pass.

"I was a little nervous to be totally honest with you,'' Nowak said of his slow start. "Our receivers were great. They did a great job of running after the catch. And, our line was great, too. There weren't a whole lot of times where I felt a lot of pressure.''

Nowak threw for 123 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions against Northwest Academy last year.

"Last year, they kind of kept me in check because I was younger and they weren't sure of my ability,'' Nowak said. "Now I just feel more comfortable with everything.''

Nowak scored on a 15-yard run up the middle to put the Crusaders ahead 7-0 with 2:09 left in the first quarter.

Nowak's 4-yard pass to McGlynn capped a 10-play, 87-yard drive that put the Crusaders ahead 14-0 with 6:52 left in the second quarter.

Nowak connected with Phillips for a touchdown with 2:07 left in the second quarter, and then threw 42 yards to McGlynn for another touchdown with 41 seconds left in the first half.

Nowak threw to Carson Sonnenberg for the two-point conversion to put the Crusaders ahead 28-0 at halftime.

A 6-yard touchdown run by Paul Cefaratti capped the scoring, and caused the running the clock to start with 11:40 remaining in the fourth quarter.

The Crusaders' defense stifled the Hornets' offense, holding them to four first downs with one of them coming on a 15-yard facemask penalty.

The Hornets had only one play from scrimmage over nine yards, and that was a 16-yard pass from quarterback Deshaun Johnson to Tyrone Robinson in the fourth quarter after they already trailed 44-0.

Ed Fink tackled Johnson in the end zone for a safety in the third quarter, while Sam Wahlig and Sam Hanger each intercepted passes.

Sonnenberg and Vinton Harris provided plenty of pressure on Johnson on the pass rush.

"We knew defense would be the strong part of our game this year,'' Nowak said. "We really try focusing on our offense in practice because we know our defense is there.

"We have like nine returning starters, I think, and that helps out a lot.''

Contact reporter Steve Korte at skorte@bnd.com or 239-2522.