Bulldogs find relief, belief in first win
When Brian St. Clair knocked down an Eisenhower pass, it was finally time for Romeo to exhale and celebrate winning a football game.
“I think everything. I think our teammorale, really,” the senior said when asked what was at stake in the Week 3 game against the Bulldogs’ fiercest rival. “This is going to boost us up.”
Curt Rienas, the Romeo coach, liked what he saw as the Bulldogs jumped for joy after improving their record to 1-2 last Friday night.
“It looked like they believed, and I think that was the best thing about today,” Rienas said. “Whenever you can win a MAC Red game it’s always a good thing.”
This season that has been like
no other, which because of COVID-19 was on hold, postponed and then reinstated, opened with Romeo losing to Red rivals Grosse Pointe South and Chippewa Valley.
Last week, the Bulldogs’ assignment was Eisenhower, which was also 0-2 entering the game at Barnabo Field.
“We knew going in it was going to be a dogfight,” St. Clair said.
A third-year starter at running back, St. Clair scored the first touchdown of the game on the first play after the Bulldogs blocked a punt and took over at the Eisenhower 10-yard line.
His second touchdown, which came on a short run in the fourth quarter, put Romeo ahead and set the stage for the Bulldogs’ 17
13 victory that wasn’t secured until St. Clair, who also plays defense, knocked down a fourthdown pass near midfield in the final minute.
“I was just reading my keys,” St. Clair said. “I dropped into my zone. I was going to intercept it, but I didn’t want to risk dropping it, so I just knocked it down.”
As the victory sank in, St. Clair and his coach had moments to reflect.
“We’ve had a lot of ups and downs with corona, like every teamhas,” St. Clair said. “At the end of the day, we’re used to it, and we know how to overcome and adapt to it.”
“We have a bunch of guys injured, and we had to find guys to step up,” Rienas added.
The coach thought about things that were said in a team meeting before the game.
“We talked about the fact that our greatest weapon is each other,” Rienas said. “We said, ‘ You’re free to make mistakes — it’s going to happen anyway. Somebody is going to step up and pick you up.’
“That was our commitment to each other.”
In this virus-impacted season, every team is eligible to be in the playoffs.
There’s no pressure to win a certain number of games.
“I only know one way to do this, and that’s to keep putting one foot in front of the other,” Rienas said. “We just focus on getting better each day.”
Romeo plays host to Stevenson in Week 4.
The Titans are 2-1.