Thursday night football: Francis Howell defeats Parkway West
Home sweet home. That is how the Francis Howell Vikings football team felt Thursday night (Sept. 17).
After playing their first three games on the road, the Vikings broke in their new AstroPlay surface with a victory.
Francis Howell got even for last year's 44-14 drubbing at Parkway West by topping the Longhorns 24-14. The Vikings improved to 3-1 with the victory. The Longhorns fell to 2-2.
"We told them all week to start the legacy," Francis Howell Coach Bryan Koch said. "We wanted to open the field with a win. The kids played their hearts out. They've done that for four weeks now. It's just a great group that goes out and plays four quarters from start to finish. I'm just as proud of these guys as I can be."
The gleaming green surface shined in the sunlight with the early evening start. AstroPlay features a unique combination of rubber and nylon fiber called Root Zone in a polyethylene fiber matrix for grass-like foot movement, feel appearance and ball response. All fibers can be embedded with AlphaSan antimicrobial technology.
Regardless of the technicalities of what it is, the Vikings liked it.
"The first game on the turf, it was amazing," said Vikings receiver Keith Brown, a junior who caught two touchdown passes.
Francis Howell junior quarterback Brett Graves agreed.
"We've been waiting for this since the beginning of the season when we found out that the field was going to be put in,” Graves said. “We're so excited."
Graves had a big game, throwing for 152 yards on 16 of 25 passing. He tossed two touchdowns passes against one interception. The Vikings ground out 221 yards rushing, led by Graves, who had 113 yards on 17 carries.
"He's a tremendous asset to this team and to this school and to Francis Howell," Koch said about Graves. "He's a phenomenal kid. He's the kind of kid you want to build a program around. He's very good with the ball."
Brown finished with five receptions for 93 yards. Corey King hauled in six catches for 33 yards.
Parkway West senior quarterback Tyler Gabbert, who has committed to Nebraska, completed 19 of 37 passes for 131 yards with one touchdown and one interception. He added 26 yards rushing on nine carries. Senior Larry Reed rushed for 91 yards on 11 carries. Senior Trevor Parsons caught eight passes for 78 yards and a touchdown. The Longhorns rushed for 122 yards on 22 carries.
Parkway West sophomore defensive back Sam Newmaster intercepted a Graves pass at 7 minutes, 49 seconds of the first quarter. Taking over at the Vikings' 29-yard line, the Longhorns were unable to move the ball. Facing a fourth-and 13 situation, Parkway West chose to go for it and the pass was incomplete.
"We struggled on capitalizing and moving the football and turning it over on downs," Parkway West Coach Jeff Duncan said.
Two plays later, Graves scampered 58 yards for a touchdown. He made a brilliant fake that fooled the Longhorn defense. Graves ran to his left and raced untouched into the end zone for a 7-0 lead. Then freshman Zac Perkins kicked the first of three extra points.
"That run fooled everybody," Graves said. "The line just washed them down. I just started running. The linebacker didn't even know I had the ball."
A turnover set up Francis Howell's second score. A fumble two plays after the touchdown was recovered by senior linebacker Sean Auer at Parkway West’s 17 yard line. The Vikings wasted no time, with Graves hitting Brown in the corner of the end zone, giving Francis Howell a 14-0 lead.
"If it wasn't for Graves, I wouldn't have any touchdown catches," Brown said. "He puts it right on the spot. He's a great quarterback."
Graves returned the compliment.
"No. 81 has very good hands," Graves said about Brown. "We call him 'Downtown' Keith Brown because he likes it in the end zone. He's a big target for me."
Parkway West drove to the Vikings' 20 but Gabbert was sacked by junior lineman Kyle Hunn and senior linebacker Andrew VanDevin on fourth down.
A bad snap on the next play was recovered by Parkway West sophomore defensive back Ed Carter in stride and he raced into the end zone from the 32-yard line. Senior Sean Roskamp added the extra point to make it 14-7.
"That big play by Ed sparked us," Duncan said.
But Francis Howell’s Perkins added a 20-yard field goal with 4:18 left in the half.
In the third quarter, Graves fumbled and Roskamp recovered, setting up the Longhorns at the Vikings' 17. Parsons caught a pass in the end zone but the officials ruled that he came down out of bounds.
Two plays later, Gabbert again found Parsons in the end zone for a 20-yard touchdown pass at the 5:34 mark, cutting the lead to 17-14.
"Going into halftime, we knew we had given up a couple of big plays but we thought we could get back in the game," Duncan said. "We did. We cut it to three points and we were right there in it."
But the Vikings got the touchdown back with 14 seconds left in the quarter when Brown caught a 22-yard pass from Graves.
In the fourth quarter, a remarkable 89-yard touchdown run by King was nullified on an illegal block penalty.
The Francis Howell defense stopped Gabbert trying to convert a fourth-and-1 with 5:59 to play.
"There's always going to be a lot of pressure on Tyler," Duncan said. "We're pretty young on the line. It's all a learning experience. We have to learn and not continue to make the same mistakes."
The Vikings held the ball for the rest of the game. Graves took a knee on the last two downs from the Parkway West 5-yard line.
"It was an awesome win for us," Graves said. "We stayed together as a team and we came through. We played a very, very good football team going against us."
Duncan said his squad will overcome the defeat and move forward.
"It's all how we're going to handle that," Duncan said. "I was proud of our fight in the second half. They got after us. My hat's off to them. They were the more physical team. I knew they had lived and died on the big play and we allowed to of them in the first half on a run and a pass. You can't expect to give those things up and beat a good football team. My job is to convince these guys we're trying to get better each week. This wasn't a conference or a district game and we want to get them all but the most important thing is that we improve."
Koch said they will.
"Parkway West is a great team and Coach Duncan has got a great group of kids and he's a great coach," Koch said. "Those guys played a great game. It was a real battle out there."
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In another game played on Thursday night, Webster Groves defeated host Parkway Central 24-6. Parkway Central fell to 3-1 on the season.
Photo by Steve Glover
