'Grand' opening

ST. MARYS - Doug Frye was thankful for the community support to make the grand of opening of Grand Lake Health System Field a reality Friday night.

"We really appreciate everything the community has done, our school system and everybody involved," Frye said. "It was a beautiful night to start it out tonight. I'm really proud of St. Marys tonight."

The old ball coach was a thankful to get back in the win column, too.

Ty Howell rushed for 133 yards and two scores as the Roughriders snapped a two-game losing streak with a 24-14 win over Van Wert in their home opener.

"I'm proud of our kids and our coaches," Frye added. "I thought our kids and our coaches did a good job of fighting through the last couple of weeks."

The win improved St. Marys to 2-2 and 1-2 in Western Buckeye League play. That, however, wasn't the big story of the night.

Most of all, it was about community support.

Many Roughrider alums showed up to see the new digs. As anticipated, there was a slight traffic jam getting out of the parking lot and onto the lone road at the game's conclusion. But fans got to see what they grew accustomed to for many years at Skip Baughman Stadium: a Roughrider win.

The first series at the stadium was a three-and-out by Van Wert. The first touchdown followed moments later.

Howell broke hordes of would-be tacklers and juked around for a 37-yard gain. With 9:30 left in the first quarter, Howell rushed for a seven-yard touchdown.

The Cougars had just one first down through two series, but quarterback Owen Treece led a touchdown drive on the third.

Treece accounted for more than 50 yards on a 10-play, 72-yard drive, which Jake Hillary capped with an eight-yard run.

It didn't stay tied for long, though.

St. Marys faced a third-and-long on the first play of the second quarter when QB Kurt Bubp threw to Carson Fischbach, who flipped the ball back to Gavin Reineke. The hook-and-ladder went for 32 yards.

"I've got all kinds of things up my sleeve," said Frye of the hook-and-ladder. "I just kind of remember them once in a while and pull them back out."

Shortly after, Bubp scrambled for a gain of 34 yards and later finished with a two-yard punch in as St. Marys led 14-7 at halftime.

The Roughriders didn't waste any time making it a two-possession game in the second half, either.

Howell and Ethan Wedding had back-to-back gains of 13 and 14 yards to open the half. Howell ran the rest himself, turning on his jets and capping a four-play, 77-yard drive with a 49-yard run.

"(Howell) is always key," Frye said. "He's a football player, and all of our key guys had nice games tonight. That's good to see."

On the Cougars' opening series, they faced a fourth-and-two from inside their own 30, and Treece was stuffed by the Roughriders line. But St. Marys did nothing with the good field position.

The Roughrider offense was back in business a few minutes later, however.

Brandon Paul intercepted Treece and returned it 15 yards inside the Cougar 30. It led to a 39-yard field goal Brandon Bowers with 3:50 left in the third quarter. The boot was one-yard from tying the school record of 40, held by three different past Roughriders.

St. Marys later ate up nearly 10 minutes off the clock with a drive that ultimately ended in a punt. Treece then led Van Wert down the field on a a 12-play, 87-yard drive, which Kaiden Bates finished by scoring from one yard out with 1:11 remaining. Van Wert recovered an outside kick but stalled on four downs inside Roughrider territory - and fireworks went off at the game's conclusion.

"We're getting closer to playing four quarters of football," Frye said. "Obviously, I would have liked to have finished a little bit better. But we're getting closer to four quarters. We've been playing about 2 1/2 in each game, so I think we maybe got to about three this week. We're going to have to keep working on that. But I think there was improvement tonight."

Howell averaged 9.5 yards on 14 rushing attempts. Bubp added 44 yards rushing and 52 passing.

Treece was 20-of-35 passing for 194 yards. He also had 21 carries for 107 yards for the Cougars (2-2, 1-2 WBL), who outgained the Roughriders 361-301.

St. Marys hosts Shawnee (3-1, 1-2 WBL) next week. Van Wert welcomes Ottawa-Glandorf (3-1, 3-0).