St. Marys ? The Veritas Christian football team fell behind early and couldn’t recover Friday night, losing, 56-22, to traditional power St. Marys Academy.

St. Marys scored its first points on a long touchdown pass following a botched punt snap, then took advantage of a Veritas fumble on the ensuing possession to score again, paving the way to a 36-0 halftime lead.

“You just cannot do that against good teams,” Veritas coach Doug Bennett said. “Momentum gets not in your favor, and it’s just a lot to overcome.”

The Eagles (5-2) finally found offensive life in the second half. Quarterback Casey Woods sandwiched a pair of short scoring runs around a 28-yard touchdown pass to Jesse Schultz.

Woods finished 10-of-16 passing for 82 yards, while Schultz added 120 yards rushing.

“I felt the second half we did very well,” Bennett said. “St. Marys didn’t substitute until the very last minute. We had to earn everything we got.”

The Eagles will travel Friday to Hamilton.

St. Marys Academy 56, Veritas Christian 22

Veritas Christian – 0 – 0 – 14 – 8 – – – 22

St. Marys Academy – 14 – 22 – 12 – 8 – – – 56

SM – 51 pass (pass good)

SM – 3 run (pass failed)

SM – 1 run (pass good)

SM – 3 run (run failed)

SM – 4 run (run good)

VC – Casey Woods 1 run (Mark Randtke pass from Woods)

SM – 47 run (run failed)

VC – Jesse Schultz 28 pass from Woods (run failed)

SM – 15 run (run failed)

SM – 92 run (run good)

VC – Woods 3 run (Randtke pass from Woods)