Crystal City stopped a three-game losing streak with a 22-20 home victory over Roosevelt of St. Louis on Oct. 4 – the first time this season the Hornets (2-4) have beaten a bigger school with a bigger roster.
Crystal’s other win this fall came against Louisiana, a fellow Class 1 school, in Week 2. The losses were to Sikeston, Bayless, Confluence Academy and Gateway Academy, all Class 4 schools. Roosevelt, also in Class 4, dipped to 2-4.
The Rough Riders marched quickly down the field on their opening possession and senior quarterback Izaiah Jones staked them to a 6-0 lead with a one-yard plunge at 10:29 of the first quarter. The two-point conversion failed.
That lead evaporated when Crystal City junior Landyn DeRousse returned the ensuing kickoff 92 yards for a touchdown. Junior Alex Kuchera ran in the conversion and the Hornets took the lead 8-6, never relinquishing it after that.
“I knew I had to go to the left, but I ran to the right so I could get everybody flowing that way, and the second I made my cutback to the left, I knew I had the speed to get outside,” said DeRousse, who sustained an injury in the first half that kept him from playing in the secondary in the second half. But he stayed in at running back and led the team with 82 yards on 17 carries.
“What a performance (by him),” Crystal City head coach Adam Sims said. “We look at him every week and he puts us on his shoulders with big play after big play. He runs the ball harder than anyone I’ve seen at this level. I couldn’t be more proud of his effort every night.”
After Crystal’s defense got the ball back at midfield, the Hornets moved the chains downfield to inside the five-yard line. Kuchera was headed for pay turf but fumbled at the goal line and sophomore lineman Trent Eisenbeis came to the rescue, recovering the ball in the end zone for a touchdown. DeRousse ran in the conversion for a 16-6 lead with 5:04 left in the first.
The Hornets got the ball at the Roosevelt 37 after punter Deandre Hollis couldn’t corral a high snap, but the visitors crashed through to the backfield on the next play, forcing a Crystal fumble. One play later, sophomore receiver Jordan Bailey caught a 57-yard touchdown pass from Jones, who also completed a two-point conversion pass to cut the deficit to 16-14 with 5:48 left in the half.
Jones threw deep often to test the Hornet secondary, sometimes drawing a pass interference penalty on a night when both teams got a blizzard of yellow laundry.
“They’re a good ballclub, but they helped us out with quite a few penalties,” Sims said. “We felt like coming off the Gateway loss, the guys were ready. It all came together for us tonight.”
“When they took their shots, I was reading their quarterback’s eyes and (allowing) nothing in the middle of the field,” DeRousse said.
A pair of seniors connected for a 28-yard catch-and-run when Hornet QB Nolan Eisenbeis hit Evan Wolfe late in the half. Eisenbeis converted a fourth-and-five with a seven-yard gain but was soon intercepted by senior cornerback Jordan Walters, who returned the ball to midfield. The Crystal defensive front stuffed the Rough Riders on fourth-and-two and the Hornets led 16-14 at the break.
Derousse made it an even more memorable night for him and the team when he took the third-quarter kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown.
“That brought a lot of energy to the team,” DeRousse said.
But the two-point conversion failed and facing a 22-14 deficit, the Rough Riders were still only a TD and two-pointer away from tying the game. And on Roosevelt’s next series, Bailey caught a 22-yard scoring strike from Jones, whose incompletion on the conversion left the Hornets ahead 22-20.
With 4:35 to play in the third, a Hornet fumble gave the Rough Riders the ball at their own 45. A pass interference call against Crystal moved the ball to the Hornet 41. But on fourth-and-six, junior Jacob Loveless sacked Jones.
On the final play of the third quarter, Hollis ran for 60 yards to penetrate the Crystal red zone. But the Rough Riders had a TD called back on an offsides penalty, and then couldn’t take advantage of a first-and-goal after a Hornet facemask infraction. On fourth down, Wolfe broke up a jump-ball pass from Jones to Bailey at the goal line.
Crystal’s defense forced a turnover on downs late in the fourth quarter after Roosevelt had scooped up another Hornet fumble in its territory. Kuchera and Loveless each had two of their team’s seven sacks.
“We might be small in numbers, but we have the resilient guys who battle every week,” Sims said. “This group is something special. Our schedule may be tough, but we think we can make a deep run in the postseason.”
Crystal City will ‘play up’ again when it travels to St. Charles to meet Class 3 Duchesne (1-5) on Friday.