The Xavier Saints had to wait an extra week to play their first football game this season, but it was worth it.

Xavier forced five turnovers Friday night and trimmed Davenport Assumption, 14-7, in a Class 3A non-district game at Saints Field.

The Saints were supposed to open the season last week, but a thunderstorm wiped out their game against Dowling Catholic and kept them chomping at the bit for another seven days.

The Saints intercepted three passes and recovered two fumbles in the victory.

Assumption (1-1) took a 7-0 lead in the first quarter on a 7-yard run by Joe Argo, but the Saints kept the Knights off the board the rest of the game.

"Our kids eventually settled down after the first series of plays," Xavier coach Duane Schulte said. "You could tell they played a game and we hadn't. We did get used to their speed."

The Saints tied the game, 7-7, in the first quarter on a 47-yard touchdown pass from Bryce Schulte to Nick Stark and the PAT by Dallas Kelin.

The game remained tied until the fourth quarter, when Maliki Wilson scored on a 10-yard run for Xavier.

"Five turnovers were too many," Assumption coach Wade King said. "You can't expect to win turning the ball over like that. We had three turnovers in the red zone.

"We did go in a little blind since they didn't play last week and we had lots of kids going both ways, but the turnovers really hurt us."

Blake Whitten made two key interceptions for Xavier.

"We started slow, but we kept going, kept fighting," Whitten said. "Our scout team and coaches really prepared us well for the game. We read our keys well and watched a lot of film on Assumption.

"We watched the quarterback's eyes and we were able to stop them as the game went on because of our defensive line. We kept getting after it. You can't pout about the way we played when we started. We just worked harder as the game went on."

XAVIER 14, ASSUMPTION 7

.                           DA      Xavier

First downs             13           11

Rushes-yards    46-227     29-110

Passing yards          61         114

Comp-Att-Int     8-14-3      9-14-0

Fumbles-lost          4-2          2-2

Punts-avg.        6-41.8      4-38.8

Penalties-yards     3-20       10-55

Assumption  7 0 0 0 -   7

Xavier           7 0 0 7 - 14

Scoring plays

DA - Joe Argo 8 run (Nate Campbell kick)

XAV - Nick Stark 47 pass from Bryce Schulte (Dallas Klein kick)

XAV - Maliki Wilson 10 run (Klein kick)