Roughriders cruise past Yellow Jackets

ST. MARYS - Back-to-back scores on trick plays provided St. Marys with all the momentum it needed in a 35-7 victory over Sidney on Friday night at Skip Baughman Stadium.

St. Marys scored on a 33-yard halfback pass in the closing seconds of the first half and followed that up with an 11-yard touchdown pass on a fake field goal three minutes into the second half.

Sidney coach Adam Doenges said he wasn't surprised with the wrinkle plays.

"The fake field goal, the roll out for the touchdown on the pass. We've seen it, we've repped it. I just didn't do a good enough job coaching it," he said. "I made the comment this week, with St. Marys, you keep sitting on fastball, sitting on fastball, sitting on fastball, then here comes change-up, here comes back-door slider. We weren't ready for those things and it hurt us in the end."

St. Mary coach Doug Frye said he didn't use up his entire bag of tricks.

"My bag (of tricks) is pretty deep, but we used a couple here and there," he said. "I was concerned coming in because we didn't have a lot of offensive reps in our scrimmage last week. It took our guys a while to get clicking, so I thought those plays helped."

The Roughriders opened the game with an impressive drive, marching 65 yards in 12 plays, while chewing nearly six minutes off the clock. Quarterback Braeden Dunlap lowered his shoulder and went the final yard.

Gabe Vandever added the first of his five extra points to put St. Marys up 7-0.

The Yellow Jackets tied the game early in the second quarter with a score set up by a 73-yard run from Caleb Harris, who was chased down at the St. Marys 10 yard line. On the next play from scrimmage Darren Taborn scored on a jet sweep from the wideout position.

Hallie Truesdale added the PAT kick to knot the score at 7 with 11:37 left in the first half.

The first of what would be five Sidney turnovers helped set up the go-ahead touchdown for the Riders. Braden Wietholter recovered a fumble by Yellow Jacket quarterback Ryan Dunham at the St. Marys 37 yard line.

From there the Riders marched 63 yards in 11 plays. Senior Sean Perry did most of the groundwork on the drive, but it was Eddie Fowler getting the call to cover the final four yards for a 14-7 lead with 2:11 left until half.

Sidney tried the hook-and-ladder play to try and get something going before halftime, but the pitch backward after the catch was fumbled and St. Marys recovered at the Yellow Jacket 33 yard line with 1:11 left in the half.

On the next play from scrimmage, the Riders appeared to be running the Wing-T counter play as Ty Howell took the handoff on the reverse. He rolled out and tossed a floater to a wide open Carter Ballweg, who had time to stop, catch the pass and back-peddle into the end zone.

"That was a big score," Frye said. "Any time you go from a one-touchdown to a two-touchdown game right before half, it's big. And I think that took a lot of air out of their sails."

The St. Marys defense took over in the second half, grabbing three interceptions, including a tipped ball snared by 6-4, 285-pound lineman Blake Kanorr, who rumbled down to the Sidney 15.

The Riders failed to pick up a first down from there, and appeared to be settling for a 29-yard field goal attempt. Instead, holder (and quarterback) Dunlap, took the snap, rolled to his right and connected with a wide-open Ethan Freewalt for an 11-yard touchdown pass and a 28-7 lead.

St. Marys, which ran 73 offensive plays in the game, put together another "three yards and a cloud of dust drive" in the fourth quarter to cap the scoring.

Dunham completed his first two passes of the second half for Sidney, but after that closed the game out be going 0-for-6 with three interceptions. St. Marys surrendered just 22 yards of total offense in the second half.

"We made some subtle adjustments at halftime," Frye said. "There are some new starters out there, especially in the trenches, and really we're still trying to figure out where everyone fits."

"Our kids played extremely hard tonight, but just made mental mistakes at key times, and that's on me," Doenges said. "There were a lot of 'ifs' and 'buts.' And you can talk about tipped passes or say we weren't lucky, but we have to fix the mistakes."

Perry finished with 145 yards rushing on 27 carries, as the Riders tallied 298 yards on the ground, rolling up 23 first downs.

Despite the impressive win, Frye sees plenty of room for improvement.

"It was a good opener and a good test for us," he said. "It wasn't pretty. There were a lot of little things typical of an opening ball game really. But we're 1-0 and happy about that tonight. We will show up tomorrow to start improving."

St. Marys opens defense of its Western Buckeye League title at home next week against Ottawa-Glandorf. The Titans will come in with a 1-0 record, having defeated Eastwood 21-19 on Friday.