St. Marys beats Wapak to stay unbeaten

ST. MARYS - A special effort by the defense and the special teams. And one special play.

It all added up to a special night for the St. Marys football program.

The Roughriders defeated Wapakoneta 13-7 in a battle of unbeatens to claim at least a share of the Western Buckeye League title for the first time since 2008 and end the Redskins' 33-game regular season winning streak on Friday at Skip Baughman Stadium.

"Our seniors played with great character and great belief and we had each other's back. What a high school football game," St. Marys coach Doug Frye said.

Frye, who also offered praise for Wapakoneta, was honored before the game for having earned his 200th win earlier this season. Friday's win had to rank pretty high on his all-time list.

The Roughriders (9-0, 8-0) won the field-position battle in the first half, with punter Matt Patten twice pinning Wapakoneta deep inside its own territory. It led to some favorable field position for the Roughrider offense.

"Great job by our punt team," Frye said. " I can't say enough good things about Matt Patten and our punt unit, and then the coverage we had was key to pin them down inside the 10."

Patten's punt early in the second quarter was downed at the 11-yard line. St. Marys forced a three-and-out and took over near midfield after a Wapakoneta punt. The Roughriders faced a third-and-four from inside the 30 when Dustin Howell completed a seven-yard pass to Seth Vorhees to keep the chains moving. Later, Gabe Vandever's 33-yard field goal gave the Riders a 3-0 lead with 5:48 remaining before halftime.

A second straight Wapak three-and-out and a 16-yard punt gave St. Marys the ball at its own 49-yard line. The Riders drove to the Wapak 34-yard line before facing a fourth down with 10 seconds remaining. Frye called a timeout and walked onto the field to address his players.

Then came the special play.

Dustin Howell handed the ball to Eric Spicer, Spicer flipped back to Julius Fisher, who threw a touchdown pass to Seth Warniment near the right pylon to send St. Marys into halftime with a 10-0 lead.

"They say even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while," Frye said. "When I walked out there, I just had a feeling that that might be there. We gave it a shot, and all the credit in the world goes to our kids. They executed extremely well."

"You've got to give them credit," Wapakoneta coach Travis Moyer said. "They made the play when they had the opportunity."

The biggest play of the game was one that St. Marys rarely practiced, Frye said.

"We actually walked through it yesterday and it was inside," Frye added. "We obviously didn't practice it much. We had another guy throw it, but I switched it around ... there's an old saying in the game, Jack's and Joe's, and I just picked another kid that had done it a couple times in the preseason who I thought would respond under the pressure."

Midway through third quarter, Howell was intercepted when he tried forcing a pass on a third-and-five, which gave Wapak the ball at the Roughrider 38. But St. Marys allowed just two yards on the following three plays. The Redskins were ready to go for it on fourth down, but opted to punt after getting flagged.

St. Marys used a heavy dose of running backs Spicer and Fisher on a time-consuming drive that moved the ball into Wapak territory and led to a 27-yard Vandever field goal with 10:38 left in the game.

But Wapakoneta marched down the field on its next drive to make it a one-score game. Quarterback Manny Vorhees had completed 3-of-9 passes for 11 yards entering the series, but connected with Maddux Liles six times for 42 yards to lead the Redskins down the field. Facing a fourth-and-goal from the six, Manny Vorhees completed a touchdown pass to Kais Chiles.

The Roughriders held control of the ball before being forced to punt with 1:18 left. Manny Vorhees got Wapak near midfield with a few completions but time ultimately ran out.

"We got some things going there in the fourth quarter," Moyer said. "We really struggled in the first half with field position. Give them credit, they controlled the field position and controlled the clock for most of the first half. But I felt like we got things going in the second half, we just didn't execute well early."

"It's two evenly matched teams," Frye said. "You play this game 10 times and it's probably 5-5, but we'll take tonight."

Howell completed 7-of-8 passes for 66 yards, several of those completions went for third-down conversions. Seth Vorhees had five catches for 56 yards. Fisher led the way in rushing with 70 yards on 21 attempts. Spicer added 55 yards on 20 attempts.

The St. Marys defense limited Wapak to just 166 yards of total offense. The Redskins became the first team to score on St. Marys in four games.

St. Marys has another big game on deck next Friday, hosting Ottawa-Glandorf (8-1, 7-1) with a chance to capture the outright WBL title.