'Riders shut out Redskins

ST. MARYS - St. Marys goal-keeper Stuart Yahl knew he would have his feet to the fire when the seventh-ranked Wapakoneta Redskins rolled into town last evening for a pivotal Western Buckeye League bout with his Roughriders.

After missing a month with a serious foot injury, Yahl left little doubt as to his health status when he continually dodged Redskin shots all evening while the Roughriders captured sole possession of first place in the league with a 1-0 victory at Roughrider Field.

The win pushes St. Marys to 8-2-2 overall and 5-0-2 in the Western Buckeye League, which vaults them at the top of the league standings all by themselves. With the setback, Wapakoneta falls to 11-1-0 on the campaign and 5-1-0 in the league.

"It was a little nerve-racking coming into the game after just getting cleared to play today, but I got myself under control and fought hard," Yahl said. "They took a lot of shots tonight, but I was fortunate to be in the right position and keep them out of the goal."

The Roughriders came out firing early, but two shots by senior Zac Nelson and one by junior Jared Rose were off the mark.  That all changed a few moments later, though, at the 22:41 mark of the opening half when sophomore Caleb James took a crossing pass from Dakota McVety and drilled it home giving his team the one-goal advantage.

The rest of the half belonged to Yahl and the St. Marys defense as they held the Redskins at-bay and deflected all six shots on goal they took.

"Our defense has finally seemed to start growing up, and that is something that we talked about at the beginning of the season in order to be successful," St. Marys head coach Dave Ring said. "We made the normal adjustments in the second half that you do when you have a 1-0 lead. We dropped back at little bit at the 20-minute mark and played a little deeper out of the back and looked for more one-on-one opportunities - typical things that we practice with a lead like that, especially against an opponent with those kinds of weapons."

The majority of the second half was played on the Roughriders' end of the field, but that didn't faze their defense as they bent, but didn't break for the remainder of the match.

The Redskins, who entered the contest averaging nearly six goals per game, unleashed five shots toward Yahl that he calmly corralled, including the final offering with 11 seconds left on the clock to secure the Roughrider victory.

"That's the fifth time a state-ranked team has come into our house and they have all gone out the same way each time," Ring said. "We have had a really long season with injuries, but we are starting to get back to full health. Wapakoneta has a very nice team, but we matched up with them well tonight and stuck with our game plan. We wanted to keep them in front of us on defense and offensively we tried to keep attacking the left side until we scored. We had a lot of chances tonight that we should have finished, but that has been the story of this team all season. Fortunately, we came away with the victory."

St. Marys is back in action on Thursday when they host the Ottawa-Glandorf Titans.