St John Saints pull off the comeback win

St. John Lutheran Gene Hill (9) makes yards as St. John Lutheran takes on Eastland Christian on 1,10/1/21 in Ocala, Florida. in Brick City Park, [Alan Youngblood/Special to the Ocala Gazette]

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Posted October 1, 2021 | By James Blevins, james@ocalagazette.com

The play that ultimately won the game Friday night for the St. John Lutheran Saints 8-man football team was a design outside run, according to all-purpose running back Landon Pindell.

It just happened to turn into an all-or-nothing scramble that won the game.

With 2:13 left on the clock in the fourth quarter and his team down by four points, Pindell scrambled the ball in from just outside the red zone and along the edge of the field for the game-deciding score.

The Saints would go on to earn a comeback win 24-20 over visiting district rival the Eastland Christian Hurricanes on homecoming night at Brick City Adventure Park on Oct. 1.

The win brings the Saints’ overall record to 2-2 and 2-1 in their district. The Hurricanes (0-4, 0-3) have yet to win a game in 2021.

On the game-winning play, Pindell admitted to almost failing to keep his feet inbounds while dashing for the end zone.

“[I] just barely did it,” said the junior of keeping inbounds. “It was one of those toe jambs, you know? What can you do? It was for the win. You do everything you can. It was a big team win tonight.”

Coming out of the first quarter, the game was tied 8-8 after St. John scored first and Eastland Christian answered about four minutes later. Both teams converted on their respective two-point conversations.

Eastland would score again at 4:20 of the second quarter, but couldn’t convert on its two-point conversion, keeping the score within reach at 14-8.

On their last possession before halftime and with 42 seconds on the clock, the Saints would compose a drive that would nearly result in some points.

But two straight penalties for illegal procedure, a Grant Phillips sack, and one final bad snap put a collective nail in the drive’s coffin.

St. John remained down by six points at halftime.

In the third quarter, the Hurricanes would score yet again, widening their lead to 12 points after missing the two-point conversion for the second straight time.

It was now 20-8 in favor of Eastland.

But the Saints would finally answer late in the third quarter. With 35 seconds before a field flip, Phillips found Pindell for the passing touchdown.

Phillips ran the ball in for a successful two-point conversion, bringing the Saints within four points, 20-16, at the start of the final quarter.

In its first drive of the fourth, St. John nearly took its first lead since the first quarter while deep in the Hurricanes red zone.

But after possessing the ball for over four minutes, the Saints couldn’t score, and would ultimately turn the ball over on downs.

Eastland punted its next possession, leaving it all up to St. John to win the game with 2:50 left on the clock.

After Pindell’s game-winning touchdown at 2:13, Phillips would pass the ball to Andrew Powers for the two-point conversion, putting the Saints up by four.

On Eastland’s ensuing possession, Junior Gene Hill would sack its quarterback on fourth and long with 1:32 remaining in the game, forcing the Hurricanes to turn over on downs.

The Saints would run the clock out from there via the victory formation, taking the homecoming win 24-20.

St. John Lutheran head coach Kreighton Rahn said after the game that his team didn’t play without making a few significant mistakes Friday night. They just made fewer of them and that was the difference in the ball game.

“Coming in we knew that [Eastland Christian] was winless,” said Rahn, “but we also knew that we only had one win. So, we knew we were going to have to play hard, and we did. But [Eastland] gave us quite a fight.”

Next up for the Saints is a non-district road game against Merritt Island Christian on Oct. 8. It is scheduled to kick off at 7 p.m.