The Tigers new stripes: Saint X looked sharp in preseason tune up

Saint Xavier set the tone in their preseason scrimmage against Simon Kenton by taking the opening kick off ninety yards for a touchdown. It was definitely an encouraging start to Kevin Wallace era.

"A lot of these kids just got done playing baseball and lacrosse," assistant coach Bo Hatfield told me moments before Harrison Pate, one of the aforementioned lacrosse players, fielded the opening kickoff, found a crease at the 20, and raced up the sideline for a touchdown.

The Tigers never looked back from there. Well at least in the first half. I left at half time but I had seen enough. St. Xavier's starters looked well prepared and they will be their usually formidable selves this season.

Senior quarterback Keegan Sullivan had his ups and downs. He and running back Anthony Moretti had a mix up in the backfield on the first offensive play from scrimmage resulting in a lost fumble. Later in the second quarter, Sullivan threw a high pass that bounced off his tight end's hands into the waiting arms of a Simon Kenton defender. The Saint Xavier defense, lead by senior linebackers Camren Sams and Patrick Owens, and 6-foot-5, 259-pound defensive end Richard Bascom stopped Simon Kenton twice inside the 10-yard line.

The defense's stinginess gave the Tigers' offense some momentum and Keegan Sullivan engineered two scoring drives. The first ended with this 45-yard touchdown throw to Brycen Harkins.

The second drive was punctuated by a well designed screen pass to Will Motley, who knifed his way through the Simon Kenton defense for a touchdown, putting the Tigers up 21-0.

At the half I caught up with Kevin Wallace to get his assessment of his team's first half performance in their final tune up before his Tigers take on DeSales next Friday in the season opener.