MICDS Beats Lutheran North 42-19 For Final ABC League Title

Mike Russell last coached at Lutheran North 14 years ago. After seeing the Rams of MICDS blast his Crusaders 42-19 on the artificial turf at St. Louis U. High, he might want to wait another 14 years to return to coaching.

The Rams won the ABC League title for the 84th and final year. Next year the conference changes its title officially to the Metro League.

The home team showed some things they’d rarely shown in the previous six victories. They showed both a propensity to put the ball on the turf and they showed their prized trick play the old fashioned ‘hook and ladder.’ The same one they used against John Burroughs in the third week of the season.

“It wasn’t pretty and we need to clean up some things because we’ll be playing a better team next week (the Ladue Rams) but we should be satisfied with the win. We can still do better,” Josh Smith said, exhorting his troops in the post-game huddle.

Thomas Militello, senior quarterback remains in top form. He threw TD strikes of 60 and 19 yards to his top receiver Jack Howell and Michael Scherer scored on runs of 11, 29 and 3 yards. Scherer rushed 13 times for 116 yards and had 145 all-purpose yards in the game.

Militello connected on 13 of 20 passes for 229 yards and three TDs. He’s been over 65 percent passing all year long.

Howell had four receptions for 104 yards including the dazzling 60-yarder for the initial score of the game.

Lutheran North got its touchdown on a 15 yard pass to Ryan Moore from Glenn Bradford and field goals from junior Conner Buenger from 30 and 36 yards out.

The nifty hook and ladder traveled 29 yards with a strike to Howell who in turn lateraled to Scherer for the score that pretty much broke the Crusader’s backs. That came with just 2:29 left in the second quarter, upping the score to 28-6.

Lutheran North never could block out the defensive line of MICDS, hurrying Bradford into a lot of incompletions.

Altogether, MICDS as a team rushed 37 times for 229 yards. They passed for 229 yards with a perfectly balanced total of 458 yards.

Next up, they host the red-hot Ladue Rams who arrive on campus with five straight victories.

Included are interviews with Coach Josh Smith, Thomas Militello and Michael Scherer.