(St. Joseph) – It's been said that good things come to those who wait. For the 2020 St. Joseph Bears, a good thing did happen after the first three weeks of the season were cancelled due to COVID-19.

The Bears defeated Kalamazoo Central 46-13 at Steve Upton Field at Dickinson Stadium with Troy Pratley doing his best "David" and defeating the Giants.

Pratley got the Bears on the scoreboard on the opening drive of the season, leading St. Joe on a 73 yard 10 play drive that concluded with a 2 yard touchdown run from Pratley. Reese Uzelac, the granddaughter of former St. Joseph and current Berrien Springs head coach Elliot Uzelac, added the point after to put St. Joe up 7-0. Uzelac becomes the first female varsity player in the 105 year history of the St. Joseph football program.

Kalamzoo Central gained 6 yards before being forced to punt the ball back to St. Joseph. The Bears then went on another long time consuming drive. This one went 73 yards and required 17 plays and 6:16 off the clock, again being capped off by a short run by Troy Pratley. Kalamzoo Central would be penalized before the point after attempt, giving St. Joe a short field for the PAT and a run by Conner Savenas for the 2 points conversion gave St. Joe a 15-0 lead after the first quarter.

Kalamzoo Central would be forced to punt on their next drive and a bad snap on the punt provided a short field for the offense to go back to work. Five plays later Pratley would run for his third score of the game and the PAT by Uzelac pushed the Bears lead to 22-0.

Later in the 2nd quarter, Max Taylor hit a field goal from 39 yards out to put the Bears up 25-0.

Kalamazoo Central would find the scoreboard with 1:15 left in the half on an 11 yard run from Jaden Blanchard, Carter Vonk blocked the point after kick and St. Joe had the lead at 25-6, which was the score at the half.

St. Joe again found the scoreboard just passed the midway point of the third quarter when Savenas scored on a 2 yard run and the PAT had the lead for St. Joe at 32-6.

A Kalamazoo Central fumble two plays later was returned for a touchdown by Joey Siccurello, but a penalty flag nullified the return, but the Bears still had the ball deep inside Kalamazoo Central territory. It took just one play for Pratley to find Griffin Shinrock in the endzone for the touchdown reception. Uzelac added the extra point, even while being knocked down for a roughing the kicker penalty against Kalamazoo Central and the Bears went up 39-6.

Pratley again found the endzone early in the fourth quarter as he scored his 4th rushing touchdown of the night from a yard out and with the PAT, St. Joe went up 46-6, starting the MHSAA "mercy rule."

Kalamazoo Central figured out their offense worked giving the ball to their running back Blanchard. who carried the ball 50 of the 60 yards of the drive, except the last 10, when his teammate Andre Tarver scored from 10 yards. The PAT was partially blocked but still good to provide the final margin of 46-13.

With the win. St. Joe improves to 1-0, and coach Andrew Pratley improves to 2-0 in season and home openers. The Bears are on the road for the next game at Okemos (0-1), whle Kalamazoo Central is home to face Lakeshore (0-1).

Other SMAC Scores
Portage Northern 15, Lakeshore 12
Mattawan 20, Gull Lake 0
Battle Creek Lakeview 34, Battle Creek Central 18
East Lansing defeats Portage Central by forfeit. (PC had a coach test positive so the game was cancelled)