St. Louis varsity football competed against the Michigan Lutheran Seminary Cardinals Friday, Sept. 10, at Wheeler Field. The teams went back and forth all game until a last-minute touchdown granted the Sharks a narrow victory by the final score of 35-32. 

  The game started rocky as MLS scored the first touchdown of the game. However, senior Ignatius Jackson had other plans as he scored a 5-yard touchdown in the second quarter to give the Sharks their first score of the game.

  Quarterback Reece Giles then found Ben Dousah for a touchdown pass to give them a 14-6 lead at the end of the first half. Senior Rafael Orta-Vazquez also booted five extra points during the course game to help the Sharks massively. 

  The score between the Sharks and Cardinals were getting dangerously close as the last half was coming to a close.  

Dousah stated, “I felt as if we played poorly in the first couple quarters of the game, which is why I think the score was so close at the end. It seemed like some of us got intimidated by the size of the players on the other team. We had a lot of mental blockage in our defense. But we worked hard to come out with the win. We did not fold under pressure and were able to stay focused.”

  Time was running out and the Sharks still didn’t have a lead. They needed to play smart to win the game. Then with only 53 seconds left in the game, Giles found Wisdom Zanquo who went 21 yards for the game-winning touchdown.  

Zanquo stated,  “At first, I had no idea Reece was going to throw me the ball. This was an all-or-nothing moment so I just kinda went with the situation and ended up making the touchdown. It was unplanned but definitely worked in the long run.” 

The Sharks are now 3-0 and compete Friday, Sept. 17, at Hemlock.