It was definitely a case of no pain, no gain for Notre Dame’s Everett Hemauer in Thursday night’s battle of unbeaten Niagara Catholic Athletic Association senior football squads.

Hemauer scored two touchdowns to lead the Fighting Irish (4-0) to a 24-3 victory over the Saint Francis Phoenix (3-1) but he spent a good portion of the fourth quarter battling painful leg cramps.

“I usually have them after the game but this game I guess I have to drink more water and eat more bananas,” the 16-year-old said. “It was terrible. It was happening in both legs on the calves and in my hamstring on the right. It was bad and it hurt so bad.”

The 5-foot-9, 170 pounder’s play inflicted pain on the Phoenix.

“I think Saint Francis thought they were a lot better than what they showed today. They thought they were going to blow us out and so did everyone else and we just turned them down.”

Notre Dame football coach Tim Bisci describes Hemauer as something else.

“He has stepped up this year. I was concerned last year after losing Justin (Savoie) to graduation and wondering who we had and hoping someone could play,” he said. “He has been better than expected. He’s tough, he runs hard, he’s fast and he understands the offence this year which is the biggest thing. Last year he came out of junior football and you gave him the ball and said run there and he did. Now we are trying to search for stuff, we run some zone and read and he is starting to do it.”

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