The Siena Heights Football Team remained undefeated at home on Saturday afternoon with a 45-21 win over Madonna. The game saw the Saints defense shatter the single game school record for sacks when they brought down the Crusader quarterback 12 times on the afternoon.
In their opening possession, taking less than three minutes off the clock, Saints quarterback Braylen Himmelein found Credell Prather for a 25 yard touchdown to take the lead which would never be relinquished.
Madonna scored their first touchdown after a roughing the kicker penalty gave Madonna a first down when they were punting. That ultimately led to a touchdown, however, a blocked PAT kept the score at 7-6.
The score moved to 14-6 after Himmelein found Numehnne Gwilly for a 19 yard touchdown followed by the PAT from Carter Ball. After the teams traded possessions that ended in fumbled turnovers, the Saints found the end zone a third time in the half with a Himmelein touchdown pass to Tendaji Alexander for six yards. The half ended with a Ball 27 yard field goal pushing the lead to 24-6 at the half.
In the second half, touchdown runs by Jaylen Flowers and Brendan Haisenleder for one yard each built the lead to 38-6. In the fourth quarter, Madonna found the endzone and converted the two point conversion to bring the score to 38-14 prior to the Saints Elijah Taylor finding Trey Graham for a 58 yard touchdown pass. Madonna scored one final touchdown with six minutes left to create the final score of 45-14.
On the game, Siena Heights never punted, scoring on every possession aside from one fumble lost and two punt return fumble recoveries by Madonna. They created 451 yards of total offense compared to their defense holding Madonna to only 155 yards of total offense. The game did see a large number of penalties with the teams combining for 20 accepted penalties for over 200 yards.
The highlight for the Saints was their defense which had 12 sacks on the game. That shattered the previous record high of nine, also against Madonna in 2022. They also created 15 tackles for loss, tying the all time record for tackles for loss in a game which was also against Madonna in 2022.
Greg Predina and A.J. Knox had three sacks on the afternoon.
Himmelein ended his day 19-27 for 252 yards and three touchdowns. Taylor added 67 yards late in the game with a 2-4 game and one touchdown. Haisenleder ran for 37 yards on nine carries with the one touchdown while Flowers added 33 yards on seven carries with the one touchdown. Himmelein added 29 yards rushing and Isaac Sexton had 29 yards rushing.
Prather led the receivers with 78 yards and one touchdown followed by Gwilly with 77 yards and one touchdown, Graham with 58 yards and a touchdown, and Alexander with 41 yards and a touchdown. Kendrick McBride added 32 yards receiving.
With the win, the Saints move to 4-3 on the season and 2-0 in MSFA Mideast play. They will return to action next weekend with a road game at Defiance. After a road game at Taylor, the Saints will wrap up their regular season with their final game at home against Indiana Wesleyan on November 15th at 12 pm.
