In his first season as the Bishop Dwenger starting quarterback, Patrick Ryan looked good in the Saints' scrimmage last week against defending Class 2A state champion Bishop Luers.

But coach Chris Svarczkopf took it admittedly slow for Ryan, who is the program's third straight quarterback to make his debut as a starter as a senior, after Trevor Yerrick and Wade Markley.

So how would Ryan react to a real game in the season opener Friday against South Side?

It turns out pretty well.

Ryan completed 8 of 11 passes for 149 yards and two touchdowns, to Cameron Smith and Steven Espinoza. He hit on his first six passes before overthrowing Smith in the second quarter.

He didn't play the final 1 1/2 quarters of the Saints' 44-13 win, their SAC-record 29th straight in the conference.

"In the scrimmage, you don't really know who is in the lead and stuff like that," Ryan said of getting game action. "It was close, but it is nice to go out in a real four-quarter format game."

On his first play of varsity competition, Ryan went right in the team's veer option and when no defenders got in his way, he kept on going. He was finally tackled at the Archers' 11-yard line. It led to the first of Remound Wright's three touchdown runs.

"He made a good read on the veer option," Svarczkopf said. "That play, the triple option series, gets more work in practice than anything else. For him, it was just like practice. I didn't expect for his portion of it to be that wide open. He is supposed to keep running until someone gets in his face, and nobody got into his face. He threw the ball well, too."