SKIP BAUGHMAN STADIUM -- A punishing St. Marys defense forced four turnovers, and the offense capitalized on big plays as the Roughriders continued their early-season domination with a 34-7 win over Wapakoneta Friday.
"Let's put it this way," first-year Wapakoneta Coach Kevin Fell said. "St. Marys is a helluva football team. Their defense squashed us all night. And the thing is, we've been playing some decent offense... until tonight."
The Roughriders improved to 3-0 on the season and 2-0 in the Western Buckeye League, with the junior varsity seeing action in all three blowout wins.
"I thought the kids played real physical tonight," St. Marys Head Coach Doug Frye said. "but we still need to do a better job of 'finishing,' offensively."
St. Marys squandered two red zone opportunities in the first quarter, however, the Redskin offense was unable to generate any momentum.
Wapak forced a St. Marys punt on the game's initial series. But Nick Yahl's punt was muffed by Wapakoneta's Craig Nagel, and Joel Tomlinson recovered at the Wapak 19 yardline.
Corey Vossler kept the drive alive with a fourth-down reception to Brett Baker inside the five. But from there the Redskin "D" stiffened. Three consecutive runs by Bo Frye netted about two and a half yards, setting up a fourth-and-goal and the six-inch line.
The Riders tried something unconventional from there as Vossler took the snap and went backwards, appearing to roll out. The Skins were all over him, and took over on downs.
Wapak managed one first down, but were thwarted after that, forcing a punt that Vossler returned to near midfield.
An 18-yard run by Frye and a nine-yard sweep by Bryan Cook got the Riders inside the 20 again. But the drive fizzled from there and a fourth-and-four run by Justin Nagel was stopped a yard short.
Fired up by the second stop, the Wapak "O" took the field. However, St. Marys junior Mark Riesen quickly gave the momentum back to Blue and Gold when he stepped in front of a Josh Brown pass and stepped out of bounds at the Wapak 28.
"Mark Riesen did a great job filling in tonight," Frye said. "He was put in at outside linebacker - a new position for him - at noon today. He did a great job."
Two incomplete passes and a loss of three brought up a fourth-and-13. From here the Riders lined up in what Coach Doug Frye called the "lonesome polecat" formation. It looked like it was drawn up in the sandlot dirt, but it worked. Vossler, his center and two other players lined up wide right. The rest of the St. Marys offense lined up on the opposite side of the field.
"We told the officials about that play before the game," Frye said. "It's a legal formation but we don't want to surprise the officials with it."
Vossler took the shotgun snap, scrambled and threw a strike to Frye, who came from the other side of the field, for a 6-0 lead with 23.9 second left in the first quarter.
"That was a back-breaker," Fell said. "We did everything right on defense. We stopped them twice, but we kept giving it back to them. You can't put your defense on the field for 45 plays in the first half and expect to be successful."
Following the kickoff, the Redskins were again unable to move the ball, and on third-and-long, and under pressure, Brown was picked off again. This time Nick Yahl snared a pass across the middle and he returned it to the Wapakoneta 23.
From there the Riders marched seven plays, including six runs by Frye, who went the final yard for St. Marys' second touchdown. Ross Quellhorst added his second PAT as the Riders led 14-0 with 8:33 left in the half.
The two teams traded punts in the second quarter until Justin Nagel busted loose for what proved to be the game breaker. The Roughrider senior, who had been quiet all night, found a seam on a sweep through the right side of the Redskin line. Nagel found daylight and outraced everyone to the end zone for a 74-yard touchdown.
"It was good to see Justin return to his old form on that run," Frye commented. "He's worked hard to come back from his injury last year and his speed looked good on that play."
Quellhorst's PAT rounded out the first half scoring with 46.8 seconds left until the band shows.
Any hopes of getting back in the game were quickly dashed for the visitors in the second half. Brown fumbled the handoff on Wapak's second play from scrimmage in the third quarter, and Adam Wiliams recovered for the Riders.
St. Marys then marched 44 yards on 13 plays. Again it was Frye doing most of the work, including a three-yard touchdown run with 5:47 left in the fourth. On the point-after attempt, Quellhorst was wide left, giving the Riders a 27-0 lead.
The junior fullback Bo Frye finished the night with 31 carries for 120 yards.
"Wapak was very fast defensively, so we thought we had to run right at them," Coach Frye commented.
St. Marys put together one more long scoring drive early in the fourth quarter. This time it was the Rider reserves doing most of the damage. Scott Laman, Eric Enriquez and Troy Matthews operated out of the backfield. Sophomore quarterback Doug Burke went the final yard capping a seven-and-a-half-minute drive giving the Riders a 34-0 lead with Quellhorst's kicking coming at the 2:44 mark.
Ten different Roughriders carried the ball against the Redskins, as St. Marys rolled up XXX yards of total offense, including XXX on the ground.
Wapakoneta kept its first string offense in the game to avert the shutout, as the Redskins were able to score against the Riders second and third string defense.
Nagel closed out the scoring with a 24-yard run and Josh Murphy booted the PAT with 1:17 left.
"I thought our defense played good enough to win several games," Fell concluded. "We'll take some positives out of this. We just ran into a great football team tonight, and they played very well."
The Riders return home next week to face the Ottawa-Glandorf Titans who are off to a 2-1 start and 2-0 in the WBL after beating Elida 23-0 Friday.
