"X-factor" Chris Cotton leads De Smet past rival St. Louis University High
By Nate Latsch
ST. LOUIS — First-year De Smet football coach John Merritt calls standout senior quarterback Chris Cotton an X-factor.
That was certainly the case on Friday at St. Louis University High.
Cotton threw a touchdown pass and ran for two more as the visiting Spartans defeated Metro Catholic Conference rival SLUH 37-20 on Friday night.
“He’s a really exciting player,” Merritt said. “He does a lot of things well. He’s an X-factor. You can’t account for him once the ball is snapped and he causes a lot of problems for a defense. He gets us out of a lot of bad plays and turns bad plays into great plays, which is why he’s a fantastic player.”
The No. 8 team in the SBLive Missouri Power 25 rankings, De Smet (3-3) didn’t play its best football for four quarters on Friday.
But between Cotton’s dynamic playmaking ability and a stingy defense led by Notre Dame cornerback commit Christian Gray and his two interceptions, it was enough to secure a much-needed win to bounce back from a loss to top-ranked CBC a week ago.
“We came out strong but we did a not really that great a job of finishing the game, so there’s a lot of film we have to watch, a lot of mistakes that we have to clean up,” Cotton said. “A victory’s a victory, so I’m thankful.”
Cotton, who is in his second year as De Smet’s starting quarterback after transferring from Trinity Catholic following the school’s closure, has guided the Spartans through a brutal schedule with games against Springfield (Ohio) and IMG Academy and includes upcoming tests against St. Mary’s and East St. Louis.
“We’re becoming closer every week,” he said. “We all understand that we’ve played a very difficult schedule, but that’s only going to help us when we get to the playoffs. We’re never going to play a team like IMG again or Springfield, Ohio, so it’s really just helping us at this point.”
Cotton helped the Spartans take control of a 7-7 game after one quarter on Friday with a stretch of 23 straight points between the second and third quarters.
The Spartans got two early scores in the second quarter when Ethan Wehmueller kicked an 18-yard field goal and then defensive end Caleb Redd returned a fumble for a touchdown. Then Cotton found Demetrion Cannon for short screen pass that the receiver turned into a 60-yard touchdown pass midway through the quarter.
When De Smet opened the second half with a 15-yard touchdown run from Cotton, the lead swelled to 23 points.
“I sought him out after,” SLUH interim head coach Adam Cruz said of Cotton. “I told him he’s an unbelievable player, that any college would be lucky to have him, that he plays really hard, he plays the right way. That’s senior leadership. He played a great game.”
Cotton had a third touchdown run, a 25-yarder, called back because of a penalty in the second half.
After dropping back to pass, he eluded the grasp of a blitzing linebacker, took off to his left and then cut back right, made a would-be tackler miss, and sprinted toward the right pylon.
Through six games this season, Cotton has thrown for 11 touchdowns (against two interceptions) and run for a team-high six scores. Last season he accounted for 2,218 total yards, including a team-high 858 rushing, and 23 total touchdowns.
St. Louis U. High (2-4), which had a two-game win streak snapped, got two second-half touchdown passes from Marco Sansone to Joseph Harris, but a touchdown run from De Smet’s Elijah Thomas with 3 minutes remaining thwarted any further comeback hopes.
“They have a lot of speed,” Cruz said. “Their defensive line controlled the line of scrimmage. They’ve got great defensive backs. It took us a long time to get a rhythm and by the time we got a rhythm it was too late.”
