TITAN STADIUM -- After battling to a 7-7 halftime draw, the St. Marys Roughriders and Ottawa-Glandorf Titans stood toe-to-toe and slugged it out through most of the second half. Then, with the score standing 21-21 and under five minutes remaining in the game, the Riders hit the Titans with a couple of their own thunderbolts.
Cory Menker stepped in front of a Jake Meyer pass and streaked 30 yards to the end zone with 4:46 left in the game to put St. Marys on top 28-21. One minute and twelve seconds later, Derek Dunlap hauled in an interception to slam the door on the Titans' homecoming hopes. Six runs by Koby Frye took the ball the last 21 yards for the final touchdown and a 35-21 win.
Excellent Roughrider special team play resulted in the hosts' meager field position most of the game, and the Riders managed super sophomore running back Logan Kaufman well enough.
The two teams have traded lopsided Homecoming wins the last two years. St. Marys downed the visiting Titans 35-7 last year, avenging Ottawa's 33-0 win in 2005.
The first quarter in the 2007 St. Marys vs. O-G Homecoming game looked more like a repeat of 2005 than 2006.
Knowing they need to control the ball to keep the Titans' offense on the bench, St. Marys took the opening kickoff and ran three-and-out. Tyler Norton salvaged field position with a nicely spiraled 43-yard punt that rolled dead at the O-G 27 yard line.
The Titans immediately moved the ball downfield, stringing together 13 plays to push the ball to the Riders' 16 yard line and threaten the game's first score.
But the Riders shut 'em down there, and on 4th and 8, Titan kicker Nolan Croy's field goal attempt was deflected and sailed wide left.
St. Marys took possession at their own 20 after the missed field goal. But after gaining a first down, Derek Dunlap's first pass attempt of the game went to the wrong team, as Luke Bellman returned the pick to the St. Marys 45 for the home team.
With the short field, quarterback Jake Meyer mixed a 17-yard pass to Alex Herrmiller with pitches to sophomore running back Logan Kaufman to march to the end zone. Kaufman took it in untouched from the seven yard line and Nolan Croy kicked the PAT for a Titan 7-0 lead.
Again, the Riders struggled to move the ball. When 3 rushing plays gained a total of one yard, Norton's ensuing punt was muffed at the OG 19 and the Riders recovered. But Kenny Bruce had the ball jarred loose on the counter on the very next play, and O-G got the ball back immediately.
At this point, the game began to resemble the 2006 contest. The Rider defense grew roots and forced a Titan punt from midfield, and St. Marys was in business at their own 28 with 4:41 left in the half.
Runs by Bruce, Frye, Dunlap and Sam Rammel took the ball across midfield to the O-G 32. Dunlap had missed open receivers in a couple of earlier passes, but he hit Garret Barhorst now across the middle and Barhorst bulled it down to the one yard line.
It took two tries, but Dunlap sneaked the ball in for the Riders' first touchdown. Kenny Bruce added the PAT kick to knot the score, 7-7.
St. Marys mounted a nice drive on their first possession of the second half. After stuffing the Titans into a 4th-and-17 punt on a three-and-out possession to open the half, the Riders took the ball from their own 48 to pay dirt on eleven plays. Koby Frye scored standing up from three yards out, and Kenny Bruce kicked the second of his five extra points of the night to put St. Marys up 14-7.
Ottawa-Glandorf responded by demonstrating how they outscored opponents by 87 points in their previous two games. Following a good kickoff return by Herrmiller, the Titans took three plays to cover 60 yards and score. The big play was a 49-yard bolt up the middle by Kaufman, who was caught from behind by Koby Frye at the 4 yard line. Kaufman walked in on the next play to tie the score.
The kickoff out-of-bounds gave the Riders the ball at the 35 to set up the Kenny Bruce show. Bruce had runs of 20 and 8 yards in the drive before finishing it off with a 21-yard sweep for a touchdown. For good measure, he also kicked the extra point; St. Marys 21-14.
Ottawa-Glandorf got stuffed on the next possession but was given new life when Herrmiller intercepted Dunlap's underthrown pass two minutes into the fourth quarter. The Titans finished with a spectacular 34-yard Jake Meyer pass to a diving Luke Bellman in the end zone to tie the score for the last time 21-21.
Thanks to Kenny Bruce's 45-yard kickoff return, when the Riders only went three-and-out they still won field position on Tyler Norton's punt to the 12 yard line. There were just over six minutes to play.
That was the hole Ottawa-Glandorf was digging out of when Menker made his game-changing interception, and the Riders put the game away from there.
Ottawa-Glandorf suffers its worst defeat of the year so far; the only previous loss being a one-point overtime defeat at Fostoria in week one.
St. Marys pulls into a tie for first place in the WBL with O-G, Kenton and Shawnee, all 4-1 in the league following tonight's games. St. Marys hosts Shawnee in two weeks and travels to Kenton in three weeks. Next Friday, the Riders will try to make it three Homecoming wins in a row, as they host the Van Wert Cougars at the Skip.
Koby Frye continues his march toward Mike Hirschfeld's Roughrider career rushing record of 3,779 yards. Frye unofficially gained 108 yards on 26 carries.
