Shamrock football season ends

The Portland St. Patrick Shamrocks hosted Deckerville on Saturday, November 4th for the Regional Finals. The Shamrocks played tough and gritty football, but came up just short, losing the game 34-32 to the visiting Eagles.

In the first quarter, the Shamrock defense had a hard time stopping the power football offense of Deckerville, allowing 3 scores and the Shamrock offense could only answer with one when Brady Leonard connected with Brayden Simon for a 3 yard touchdown pass, followed by a Tyler Groothuis extra point. This left the score 22-7 after the first quarter.

The Shamrocks managed to outscore the Eagles in the second quarter, with a 21 yard pass to Lucas Simon and another extra point from Groothuis. Deckerville also answered, but the Shamrock defense held them out of the end zone for the two point conversion. The score was 28-14 at halftime.

St. Patrick made good halftime adjustments, and scored on the opening drive when Tyler Groothuis caught a 21 yard pass from Brady Leonard. The Eagles answered, before the Shamrocks closed out the quarter with another score when Lucas Simon reeled in a 19 yard pass. This left the score 34-26 after three quarters of play.

In the fourth quarter, the Shamrock defense stuffed the Eagles, and the Shamrocks scored again when Lucas Simon caught another 32 yard touchdown pass. Unfortunately, the Shamrocks again failed on their two point conversion and were unable to make a final drive to win.

Offensive leaders for the Shamrocks were Brady Leonard who went 17 for 26 for 242 yards and 5 touchdowns and rushed 10 times for 20 yards. Lucas Simon caught 6 passes for 103 yards and 3 touchdowns and rushed 11 times for 39 yards.

Defensive leaders for St. Patrick were Aiden Mosser with 16 tackles, Riley Mosser with 10 tackles, Devin Cook with 9 tackles, Augustus Teachworth with 8 tackles, and Charlie Thelen had 7 tackles and 1 tackle for loss.