St. Bonifacius, Minn. – After trailing 21-0 at the half and 27-0 early in the second half, the Crown football team stormed back to pull to within a single score, but couldn't complete the comeback, eventually falling by a final score of 56-35 on Saturday afternoon.

The Blue Jays held an almost 13 minute advantage in time of possession in the game, a statistic that pointed to the massive disparity in rushing yardage.  The visitors rushed for 466 yards to Crown's 18.  The Storm, a passing team by nature, held a 362-95 yard advantage through the air. 

The star of the game was Westminter's Taylor Dobbins who carried 42 times for 308 yards and five scores.  The Blue Jays were an impressive 7-7 in red zone scoring opportunities on the afternoon.
Crown clawed back into the game thanks to some big plays to open the second half. 

First, Jared Gilmore found Terry Warner on a 50 yard touchdown strike up the middle of the field, and after a 14 yard touchdown pass to Josh Wallace, the defense pitched in as Isaac Herron took a fumble recovery back 67 yards for a Crown score.  At the end of the quarter, Crown trailed by just six points.

The Blue Jays pushed their advantage to 20 points after a pair of Dobbins touchdown runs to start the fourth quarter.

Crown pushed back, as Gilmore found Maddox Lawien for a 26 yard score, but another pair of rushing touchdowns from the visitor near the end of the game, including Dobbins' fifth, meant that a final Gilmore to Lawien touchdown connection, this time for 15 yards, was too little, too late. 

Lawien had a breakout game, leading the team with eight catches and 107 yards, including the two touchdowns.  Gilmore finished with 355 yards through the air and the four touchdowns with one interception.

Defensively, Gabe Banks led the way with a massive 15 tackles, including two sacks, and Quis Icon totalled 14 stops, including a tackle for loss and another forced fumble.  Rudy Criner continued to show his knack for making big plays, recording 10 tackles, a sack, a forced fumble, and an interception.  The feat made all the more impressive by the fact that he was playing with a cast and "club" on one hand.

Crown will travel to Northwestern for a rare Wednesday game next week to finish up their 2021 campaign.