By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
Another year, another crushing loss in the semifinal round of the NAIA Conference football championships for the Benedictine Ravens.
Benedictine battled the conditions, and a tough Grand View team, as the Ravens fell 17-10 in the NAIA Semifinals at Duke Williams Stadium to the Vikings for a second time this season.
Though battling tough near the end, Head Coach Joel Osborn says he has no regrets.
"We had our opportunities, and that's the tough part about today," Osborn told reporters following the game. "And that happens in life, but I have no regrets, no regrets."
Coming into the matchup with certain goals though, such as winning the turnover battle, and achieving those, made Osborn proud
"I thought we came out, and they hit us in the mouth a little bit, we responded and really did a nice job the second half on defense being physical and shutting the running game down, got some really critical stops," Osborn explains. "And then offensively, we moved the ball, we just didn't quite finish in the redzone like we wanted to and just left a few to many plays out there."
It's the second time this season the Ravens lost to the Vikings, the top team in the NAIA Conference. It's been quite the run for the Ravens over the last two years, winning a combined 23 games and losing just five, and making back to back trips to the semifinals.
It's a run that Osborn is proud that his team has been able to accomplish
"Like I told our players at the end there in our huddle is, when you set your sights on really high goals, disappointment can come with that, but getting here to the semifinals and the way this game went with Grand View, you're going toe to toe with a championship pedigree program, I'm just really proud of our effort," Osborn says.
Prior to last season, the Ravens had not made it to the semifinals since 2018, the last time the program also made it to a championship game.
It was the defense that led to Benedictine's first score of the game. After Isaiah Hasten picked off Grand View's Jackson Waring at the Benedictine 18-yard line, the Ravens were able to covert the interception into a touchdown drive that was capped off by a four yard rushing touchdown from Xavier Ugorji.
Grand View answered to tie the game in the second quarter on a rushing touchdown of their own, a 35 yard break away run by Bryant Williams. That touchdown was followed by field goals from both teams, Christian Klobe converting a 30-yard field goal with just over three minutes left before the half to give Benedictine back the lead before Cory Wood knocked through a 31-yard field goal with 16 seconds left to send the game into halftime tied at 10.
The Vikings broke the tie with just over one minute left in the third quarter on an eight yard pass from Waring to Triston Williams for the go ahead touchdown in the second half, which turned into the only scoring the rest of the way.
Benedictine finished with 248 total yards on offense with 146 yards rushing and 102 yards passing. Ugorji finished with 64 yards off 22 carries while Dalton Witherspoon added 47 yards. Jackson Dooley finished with 102 yards on 11 of 22 passing while Joseph Lagafuaina was the leading receiver with 46 yards on three receptions.
Benedictine finishes the season 12-2, their only losses of the season coming to Grand View.