St. Aloysius running back Alex Halinski, left, barrels down on a Stringer defender in the Flashes’ 20-13 win on Friday night, the first of the season. (Meredith SpencerThe Vicksburg Post)

[9/21/04]From the way Friday’s game against Stringer started, it seemed like another blowout was in the making.

St. Aloysius had fallen behind early in its first three games, only to lose by an average of 29 points in each. Once the opponents got a big lead, the young and inexperienced Flashes collapsed and lost their confidence. But Friday was a different story as the Flashes (1-3, 1-1 Region 7-1A) picked up their first win of the season with a 20-13 squeaker over Stringer (1-2, 1-1) and put themselves in position for a potential playoff run.

“It was big because we started off 0-3. That hurt us pretty bad and everybody was getting down,” said Chip Donald, who had one of three interceptions for St. Al’s defense. “This win just brought us back to the top … it helped the confidence a whole lot.”

The game began with a series of heart-crushing plays that appeared as if they would dampen the Flashes’ hopes, but they came back strong before halftime and fought back to win in the second half.

Stringer quarterback Charlie Fall took the first play from scrimmage 82 yards with the help of a few missed tackles. On the next play, Stringer scored and took a 7-0 lead.

St. Al’s first play went just the opposite as quarterback Daniel Halinski fumbled the snap and Stringer recovered. But the Flashes got the ball back on a fumble by Fall and drove 67 yards in 12 plays to set up a fourth-and-goal from the Stringer 1-yard line. Alex Halinski couldn’t get in the end zone on a dive, and the Red Devils marched 99 yards for another touchdown and a 13-0 advantage early in the second quarter.

“That took the wind out of us a little bit, and we missed a touchdown ourselves inside the 5-yard line where we should have scored,” St. Al coach Jim Taylor said. “We were in one of those situations the whole game where we deserved to win and we deserved to lose.”

Despite being bottled up for only 56 yards in the game, St. Al halfback Rob Jones punched in the first of his three touchdowns, from 1 yard out, to cut the lead to 13-7 in the second quarter.

“We got through the first quarter or so, and we saw that we could play,” Taylor said. “Everybody started to get a little positive attitude toward them, and we started playing hard and making plays on defense and offense.”

An interception off Fall by Harris Martin set up the Flashes for another score, but they fell short as time expired in the first half.

The momentum was beginning to swing in favor of the Flashes, and they saw at the break that they were within reach of their first victory.

“After halftime when we were still in this game and it wasn’t 40-0 like normal, we knew there was something different in the air. We could taste it and we could feel it,” Jones said.

St. Al’s defense stepped up and put pressure on the Red Devils. The Flashes caused turnovers in three of Stringer’s four drives in the second half and never allowed the Red Devils in the red zone.

“We started the second half making outstanding plays on defense,” Taylor said.

Rob Jones scored twice more for a 20-13 St. Al lead, and the Flashes held on for the win.

Next up for St. Al is a four-game road trip beginning with Bogue Chitto, which lost to Stringer 27-20. The Flashes follow that with two more winnable games over the next three weeks against Salem (2-2) and Enterprise Lincoln (2-2). Sandwiched between those two is a tough game at No. 5 Mize (4-0).

Taylor sees no reason why his team can’t emerge from their travels at 4-4 overall and 4-2 in the region.

“We’ve got a chance of at least being in the hunt the last two games of the season, coming down to Cathedral and West Lincoln,” he said. “That’s just goals we want to work for. Above all, we just want to work to get better and enjoy the season.”