By DON O'BRIEN

Herald-Whig Sports Editor

HANNIBAL, Mo. -- The streak officially came to an end after 269 minutes and 6 seconds.

It took Jefferson City Helias just over two minutes into Friday's district championship game at E.A. Porter Stadium to squash Hannibal's quest for a sixth straight shutout.

It didn't take the Crusaders too much longer to put away the Pirates to win a district title and snap Hannibal's seven-game winning streak with a 42-17 victory in a battle of state-ranked Class 4 teams. The loss forces Hannibal (8-2) to hit the road to face Fort Zumwalt East (8-2) in a regional playoff game on Wednesday.

"We have to regroup," Hannibal coach Mark St. Clair said. "We just can't sit around and worry about what we did or didn't do. We have to get ready for Fort Zumwalt East, and if we do it right we'll get another shot at (Helias)."

Should the Pirates get another shot at the Crusaders, they'll have to figure out a way to stop the duo of tailback Brad Wilson and quarterback Clint Distler. The pair combined to rush for 304 yards and had a hand in all seven of Helias' scores.

"We've run the ball on everybody," Helias coach Chris Hentges said. "I fully expected to be able to run the ball. I thought our offensive line did well. They blocked the perimeter well."

Helias jumped on two Hannibal fumbles, including an early one that gave them a 7-0 lead. On the Pirates' second play from scrimmage, Lenny Clark fumbled the ball at the Helias 38. Three plays later, Wilson broke loose for a 48-yard touchdown run to end the Pirates' scoreless streak with 9 minutes, 55 seconds left in the first quarter.

Later in the first quarter, Distler rolled up the middle 17 yards for a touchdown and a 14-0 lead. Hannibal answered back with a 12-play drive that Mark Nemes capped with a 2-yard scoring run with 9:25 left in the first half. That's as close as Hannibal would get the rest of the game.

A 56-yard TD run by Wilson pushed the lead to 21-7. A Nemes fumble gave the ball back to the second-ranked Crusaders (10-0). Eight plays later Distler hit Joe Knaup with a 14-yard touchdown pass in the final minute of the first half for a 28-7 cushion.

"We can point fingers at this mistake or that mistake," St. Clair said. "We got beat by a good football team. We battled hard, and we didn't make some plays that they did."

Wilson finished with 217 yards rushing on 20 carries to lead the Crusaders. Distler added two more short TD runs in the second half and finished with 87 rushing yards on 14 carries. He completed all six of his first-half passing attempts and finished 6 for 9 for 83 yards with an interception.

Nemes led Hannibal with 193 yards rushing on 30 carries. He also had a 9-yard touchdown run in the third quarter. Outside of Nemes' rushing, Hannibal had just 100 more yards of offense.

"I believe that we'll be seeing them again in 10 days," Hentges said of Hannibal "It was very important for us to finish undefeated and win the district. Now we know a rematch will be at our place."

-- dobrien@whig.com/221-3365