Rams end Roughriders' season

TROTWOOD - After a long kickoff return tied the score at 7 in the first quarter, St. Marys briefly had the momentum in the Division III regional football semifinal.

But from there, Hamilton Badin reminded the Roughriders why it came into the game at 12-0.

The Rams answered with a 35-yard field goal on their next possession, returned St. Marys' next punt for a touchdown, and kept adding on as they rolled to a 45-10 victory at Trotwood-Madison High School on Friday.

"Whenever they get us out of our normal stuff, we're not as good," St. Marys coach Bo Frye said. "Obviously that's something we want to progress to. But we knew who we were this year, and it got us 10 wins."

St. Marys finishes its season at 10-3.

Braeden Hemmelgarn gave the Roughriders their lone touchdown, taking a Rams kickoff back 82 yards down the right sideline after Badin scored on its first drive of the game. But on offense, St. Marys couldn't get anything going, as Logan Neu and the Badin defensive line stifled the Roughriders running game and gave quarterback Gavin Reineke precious little time to throw.

St. Marys finally got a drive going in the final minute of the first half when sophomore Cody Wallace came in at QB and opened up the passing game. Wallace found Hemmelgarn over the middle for 13 yards. On the next play Wallace hit Reineke on the left side. Reineke lateraled the ball to Hemmelgarn for the hook-and-ladder, which Hemmelgarn then ran to the Badin 34.

A deep shot drew a pass interference penalty to move St. Marys into the red zone before Wallace tried to force a pass to the end zone, where Braedyn Moore snagged the interception and the Rams knelt out the final seconds of the half.

"Gavin didn't practice all week, he had a bruised kidney, so Cody practiced all week for us," Frye said. "We were thinking of giving him the start, but we gave the senior the nod - he got cleared this morning, actually… but it was (Wallace's) time. We all knew it. We saw him at practice this week, and he's going to be good. He's going to be a stud down the road here."

Moore returned a Roughriders' punt 63 yards to make it 17-7 with 49 seconds left in the first quarter, and Rams quarterback Landyn Vidourek found a wide open Cooper Fiehrer down the left side for a 22-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter to make it 24-7 by the half.

St. Marys pulled off an onside kick to start the second half, failed a fourth down on offense, then forced a punt to get another drive started with favorable field position. Wallace completed a pair of third down passes, including another hook-and-ladder play that Brayden Sullivan carried all the way to the Rams 9, but again the Roughriders struggled in short yardage. Three runs brought the ball to the 3, where Brandon Bowers kicked a 20-yard field goal to cut the deficit to 14.

"He's just a little young, and we threw him into the fire there," Frye said of Wallace. "But he gave us a spark for a little while. We had to play a perfect game, and we didn't execute at times."

That was as close as it would get, as Badin needed just four plays to add on again. With the Rams in St. Marys territory, Jack Walsh broke through a series of arm tackles and fought through the final few yards down the left sideline to make it 31-7 with less than three minutes to go in the third quarter.

The Roughriders came up a yard short on a fake punt on their next drive, and two plays later Vidourek found Fiehrer open again, this time deep down the left seam for a 34-yard touchdown and the knockout blow.

"At least the two games of the playoffs I've seen them play, they play as a unit, they played all three phases of the game very well," Frye said. "They're going to make a run at it, so congrats to them."

On the first drive of the fourth quarter, Wallace took a snap and found two free rushers bearing down on him, including Neu. The sophomore lobbed a pass to the left, where Moore settled under it and ran it back for a 47-yard score.

Neu finished with three sacks for the Rams, including a strip-sack of Wallace in the third quarter that the Roughriders recovered.

Hemmelgarn led St. Marys with 73 yards rushing and 19 yards receiving and added six tackles. Wallace finished 7-of-16 for 42 yards through the air.