Youth and inexperience proved costly for St. Aloysius on Friday night.

David Lemoine had 120 total yards and a touchdown, and four other players scored a touchdown for Madison-St. Joseph as it beat St. Al 37-14 to take home the Strauss-Stallings trophy for a second consecutive season.

St. Al coach B.J. Smithhart said his team’s

inexperience — the team has 18 freshmen and sophomores on its 26-man roster — was a deciding factor.

“We’re inexperienced and it showed in the first quarter. Our guys seemed out of place and jittery against a more experienced team,” explained St. Al head coach B.J. Smithart. “We just need to continue working on our fundamentals and bounce back next week.”

St. Joe took an insurmountable lead by halftime. Connor Wolf and Brett Burgess each ran for a touchdown in the first quarter, and Lemoine’s 73-yard run gave the Bruins a three-touchdown lead. The backbreaker, though, was a 16-yard pass from Peyton Willoughby to William Fetherson with just 33 seconds to play in the half. That score made it 27-0.

St. Al looked ready to get back in the game coming out of the break. Junior Elliott Bexley blocked a punt, and sophomore John Austin Jones returned it 20 yards for the Flashes’ first touchdown of the season with 9:42 left in the third quarter.

The score gave the Flashes some momentum, but it didn’t last long. Two plays later, St. Joe wide receiver Nick Beasley took a snap out of the wildcat formation and ran 53 yards for a touchdown to make it 34-7.