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Saints 20, Monte Vista 6

On Friday night the Saints hosted the Monte Vista Monarchs in the opening round of playoffs.  Right from the get-go it appeared the Monarchs had come to play.  After receiving the opening kickoff Monte Vista pounded the ball up the middle gaining large chunks of yardage.  They were able to sustain a long drive deep into Saints territory.  The Saints defense made adjustments and was able to stop the Monarch drive on fourth down.  Saints took over down near their own goal line and picked up where they left off last week in their blowout against Morse.  Using a balanced pass / run attack they marched down field and scored on a 48 yard scamper by Daniel Butler.  However, the Monarchs were on the march once again, continuing to have success running the ball.  After moving the ball nearly the length of the field for the second time in as many tries, Monte Vista scored a TD late in the first quarter.  The PAT was blocked and Saints held on to a precarious 7 - 6 lead.  Even though the ball was moved up and down the field by both teams, neither was able to score in the second quarter.  After playing a bend but don't break defense in the first half, giving up over 200 yards, Saints came out and dominated in the second, limiting Monte Vista to 88 yards.  The offense, looking stronger each week, scored twice more in the game.  Once on a 7 yard pass from David Popkins to Leighland Koonce and once on a 12 yard run by Butler who had 112 yards on just ten carries.  On defense, Chris Pousson had two blocked kicks and one interception.  Nick Sowa had 12 tackles and a sack.