High school football: No. 3 St. Frances Academy proves 'road warrior' status with 26-7 win over No. 25 Dutch Fork

New state, same results as No. 3 St. Frances Academy (Baltimore,) won its fourth straight road game to start the 2022 high school football season beating No. 25 Dutch Fork (Irmo, S.C.) 26-7 on Friday in the MaxPreps Game of the Week.

The Panthers, who won't play at home until Oct. 7, already have wins in Illinois, Texas and Florida. After checking South Carolina off the itinerary, St. Frances closes out its sojourn with a trip to Hawaii to face island power Kahuku on Sept. 30.

But before jetting across the Pacific Ocean the Panthers needed to take care of business against a Dutch Fork team that came in as a reigning 5A champion which has gone 87-2-1 since 2016 and came into the contest with a 43-game regular season win streak.

And like it did last week in the win over Venice, it took some time for the St. Frances offense to gain a little traction. After two possessions each, the Panthers got the ball for the third time and capitalized ... quickly.

St. Frances, which had a touchdown called back on a punt by Dutch Fork, simply pieced together a three-play, 77-yard drive in which they gained yards in chunks. Boston College-bound Durell Robinson started the drive with a 13-yard run, followed by a 26-yard scamper by four-star junior quarterback Michael Van Buren. On the next play, Robinson busted open a run for 38 yards that found him celebrating with teammates in the end zone on the second to last play of the first quarter.

Dutch Fork would put together a drive to start the second period, but St. Frances came up with a field goal block that kept the Silver Foxes off the board. The home team would score, however, on the next St. Frances possession as Chandler Perry intercepted a Van Buren out-route, taking the pick back 36 yards for a touchdown.

Up 8-7, St. Frances reeled off 12 straight to end the half as Van Buren twice found Kyree Benton on scoring strikes.

On St. Frances' second scoring drive, the visitors went 76 yards and 14 plays as Van Buren found Benton on a 4-yard slant in traffic, threading the pass through a trio of Dutch Fork defenders. On the Panthers' final possession of the half, the Van Buren-to-Benton combo struck again on a 45-yard strike as the quarterback stood in the pocket and delivered a dime down the sideline as he took a shot just as he let the ball fly. St. Frances led 20-7 at intermission and amassed 350 yards of offense through three quarters.

After muffing the second-half kickoff — and giving Dutch Fork a glimmer of hope — St. Frances quickly shut that door as Brian Simms lll took a strip sack of quarterback Aliam Appler back 62 yards for a 26-7 Panthers lead 20 seconds into the third quarter.

And after the defensive touchdown, the St. Frances Academy defense again came up with a turnover as Ify Obidegwu recovered a fumble four plays into the ensuing Dutch Fork drive. After that, St. Frances was content to bleed clock on offense and its defense forced several turnovers on downs as Dutch Fork went for several fourth downs trying to ignite any offense.

Dutch Fork (5-1) has a bye next week before getting back to action at home on Oct. 7 against White Knoll. St. Frances Academy (4-0) flies to Hawaii at the start of next week for a Sept. 30 game against Kahuku and returns home for a matchup against West Toronto Prep on Oct. 7 for its first home game of the season.