BAUGHMAN STADIUM -- Scoring with relative ease the first two times they touched the ball, it looked like the St. Marys Roughriders would be putting in the reserves early Friday night against an 0-9 Bath team on Parents' Night.
But the Wildcats decided to stick around and make a game of it.
Bath held the Riders scoreless until the fourth quarter, but ended up eight points short of the upset as St. Marys capped its regular season with a 21-13 win at Skip Baughman Stadium.
The Roughriders finished 8-2 overall and 7-2 in the WBL tied with Kenton for second place. Ottawa-Glandorf nailed down the league crown with a 28-7 win over Defiance.
Final Division III, Region 10 playoff spots will not be announced officially until Sunday, however, it appears the Riders will not have enough points to crack the top eight and make the playoffs.
St. Marys started strong, but trouble in the Red Zone and second half offensive woes kept Bath in the game.
The Riders took the opening kickoff and marched 66 yards in 14 plays with a drive that ate 5:30 off the clock. Bo Frye was the “three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust” weapon on the drive as he carried the ball 10 times, including the last carry – a three-yard touchdown.
Doug Burke added the first of his three extra points for a 7-0 lead with 6:31 left in the quarter.
After a three-and-out by Bath, the Riders went 88 yards in just six plays to score again. The big play was a 68-yard run by Koby Frye, who was dragged down at the Bath 20. Five plays later Bo Frye burst in from six yards out and the Riders were cruising 14-0 with 2:38 left in the first quarter.
Bath was forced to punt and the Riders had the ball near midfield with time still left in the first quarter.
However, Bath’s ‘D’ was able to stop Koby Frye in his own backfield on back-to-back plays, forcing a St. Marys punt and sparking the Wildcats.
The Cats put together a 66-yard, 11-play drive with quarterback Robert Jenkins going over from one yard out on a sneak. Greg Burleson added the kick to cut the Riders lead to 14-7 with 6:09 left in the half.
“I thought our kids did a great job of not giving up,” Bath coach Jim Ehresman said. “It’s all about pride. We’ve been through a lot of adversity this season, and the kids just stepped it up, kept playing hard, and then started thinking ‘hey, we can play with these guys.’”
The Riders appeared poised to answer the score as they drove inside the deep into Bath territory before turning the ball over on downs at the one with 1:33 left to play in the half.
The second half started about the way the first half ended. A Bath shotgun snap went awry and the Riders recovered the fumble at the Bath 6 yard line. But three plays later Bo Frye fumble the ball in the end zone and Bath got it right back.
The two teams then traded possessions as Jenkins was intercepted by Eddie Minnich and the Riders were forced to punt for the second time in the game. But the Rider's got it right back on an interception by Brett Baker.
For the third time St. Marys moved the ball inside the Bath five yard line only to get turned away. This time Baker’s fourth down run was stopped short at the Wildcat four.
The Rider ‘D’ held and St. Marys took over near midfield early in the fourth quarter.
St. Marys went on another march and this time would not be denied, overcoming a holding penalty that erased a 36-yard touchdown run by Scott Laman. Five plays later, Laman ran the very same play for a 20-yard touchdown and a 21-7 lead with 7:36 left to play.
The Cats made it interesting as A.J. Carpella picked up a first down with a 43-yard run and Jenkins followed with a 10-yard touchdown run on the quarterback draw.
Burleson’s kick was wide left, as the Riders held a 21-13 lead with 4:37 left to play.
The Riders fielded the ensuing kickoff and were able to pick up four first downs and run out the clock to seal the win.
Bo Frye finished the night with 135 yards on 36 carries. Koby Frye tallied 133 yards on 19 carries and Laman had 72 yards on 10 carries. Both Frye boys finished the season with over 1,000 yards as Koby rolled up 1,322 on 174 carries and Bo had 1,126 on 256 carries.
Coach Frye's post-game media comments: Audio (7.5 MB)
As of midnight Friday, Joe Eitel's "incomplete" results show St. Marys in 9th place and statistically eliminated from the playoffs. Kenton finished 7th on the strength of their win over the Riders and would play next week at Springfield Shawnee, if Eitel's calculations are accurate.
Good luck to Kenton and Ottawa-Glandorf in the playoffs -- let's hope the WBL didn't beat them up too much to advance in the post-season. If Nietzsche was right, what does not kill us only makes us stronger, and the Titans and Wildcats should be invincible after surviving league play. Of course, if Nietzsche was right, there is no God.
