Published: November 24, 2007 08:23 pm      

Jeff Peek: Ambrosius a team leader, even in defeat

Spencer Ambrosius took a deep breath, then stepped forward and did what senior quarterbacks are taught to do.

He took reponsibility.

"This was my fault," Ambrosius said, standing tall but obviously fighting the urge to run off and sit by himself somewhere at Ford Field. "I feel terrible. It's hard. I don't want to take off my jersey because I know it won't go back on.

"This isn't how it was supposed to end. I wasn't prepared for this," the St. Francis signal-caller said after the Gladiators stumbled their way through a 20-0 loss to Mendon in the Division 7 state championship game Saturday. "I didn't play well. The guys worked so hard to get here, and I feel like I let them all down."

Ambrosius, a 6-foot-1, 178-pound carrot top whose level-headed demeanor helped St. Francis roll through the playoffs and into the title game, was intercepted twice and also fumbled against the Hornets "” on three consecutive possessions. So it is easy to see why he was willing to point a finger at himself.

But his teammates weren't buying it.

"I don't think Spencer should take all of the blame. That's ridiculous," said fellow senior captain Jacob Schell. "We had missed tackles, we didn't read holes on offense, we fumbled. I had one myself.

"This is not all Spencer," said Schell, looking every bit as devastated by the outcome as Ambrosius. "I don't want him to take the blame. We couldn't have asked for more from him. He's such a confident kid. He got us here."

"We lost 20-0," added senior Parker Prusick. "A couple of mistakes (by Ambrosius) didn't lose this game. We're all to blame for that."

Ambrosius, who entered the game with 18 touchdown passes and only two interceptions, hadn't turned the ball over since the fifth week of the season. That was over two months ago.

So his mistakes were a shock to his system, and he dissected them with the same concern and attention to detail that he used while pouring over game film this fall.

"Oh, yeah, I already have regrets," Ambrosius said. "Those few plays will haunt me for a long time. Our offense played hard, our defense played hard, and those three turnovers killed us."

Ambrosius said his first interception, which came in the end zone with the score tied 0-0 in the first quarter and St. Francis ready to pounce at the Mendon 19-yard line, could have easily been avoided. He said he forced the ball into double coverage, making it almost impossible for 5-8 Andrew Rushlow to catch it.

"As soon as I let go of it, I saw them closing in on him," Ambrosius said. "It was stupid. I should have thrown it away. I knew I'd made a bad choice.

"But there was plenty of time left at that point, obviously," he said. "I was ready to get back out there."

Ambrosius' fumble on the Gladiators' next possession ended another drive in Mendon territory, however. Then came Ambrosius' final turnover, one that he said hurt the most "” not just because it resulted in points but because he knew head coach Josh Sellers had no choice but to pull him from the game.

"I tried to squeeze that one in there," Ambrosius said of the pass, which deflected off of Max Bullough's hands and into those of Mendon's C.J. Nightingale, who returned it 43 yards for the first touchdown of the game. "I had a lot of confidence throwing that because of how my receivers played all year, but I shouldn't have thrown it there.

"That's one play I'll think about for a long time."

When Sellers removed Ambrosius for junior Corey Williams with 3:32 remaining in the first half, Ambrosius said he supported the move.

"I wasn't playing well, and Corey's a good quarterback," Ambrosius said. "I knew he could get the job done. I was just mad at myself."

As it turned out, Ambrosius got another shot late in the game, but by then the score was 20-0 and Sellers wanted his senior quarterback to finish the season exactly where he had started it "” on the field.

"I know he's devastated, but every senior on our team is devastated," Sellers said. "He has to put it all in perspective "” he's the reason we're here.

"Schell and (Andrew) Rushlow and (Dan) Brick, they were able to run as well as they did because Spencer passed as well as he did. I think that someday he'll be able to look back at this and see it for what it is."

Ambrosius, of course, doesn't think that will be any time soon.

"Some day, maybe. It's hard to tell," he said. "We really wanted to win a state championship. We don't care about stats or anything else; it's all about winning.

"So this game is what I'll remember about this season "” not the conference title, not the playoff run. This game. The guys look to me to be a leader, and I didn't get the job done.

"So I'll always wonder, 'What if I had played better?' "

No one, on the other hand, will ever wonder about Ambrosius' character.