SKIP BAUGHMAN STADIUM -- The Riders opened the first half by fumbling away the football on their very first play after receiving the opening kickoff, gave up an 85-yard kick return for a touchdown, and ended the half by giving up a 22-yard touchdown pass with no time left on the second-quarter clock. That's the bad news.
The good news was that St. Marys led 29-18 at halftime.
The Indians took advantage of the opportunities they had but had trouble moving the ball otherwise. The Rider D consistently snuffed runs and knocked down passes, with Derek Freewalt pulling down a key interception late in the second quarter.
Also impressive were the drives put together by the Rider offense. Their second possession drive went 77 yards in 16 plays for a touchdown, the next went 52 yards in ten plays, also for a touchdown.
The Riders' fourth possession was a three and out, but the D stepped up to stop the Indians on three plays.
The Riders' next possession went 55 yards in five plays. Two big plays highlighted the drive: a 16-yard pass from QB Jake Taylor to Derek Freewalt, and a 21-yard Aaron Homan sweep for the Riders' third touchdown.
Less than a minute of Piqua possession time later, Freewalt stepped in front of a Cole Selzer pass and returned it to the Piqua 12 yard line.
The St. Marys coaches went for the kill. Hallelujah! Taylor fired a pass to Cody Martin. Touchdown. Drive time of possession: 3 seconds (give or take a few).
With only 46 seconds remaining in the half, Piqua got the ball with good field position on another good kickoff return by Kendall Taylor. Starting on their own 43 yard line, Piqua pulled out the passing game.
After a Piqua 14 yard pass for a first down, the Riders made some good defensive plays and looked to run out the clock on the half. But the Indians had other ideas, and a personal foul call on St. Marys gave Piqua a first down at the St. Marys 22 yard line with 6 seconds left.
A quick Cole Selzer pass was knocked down on the goal line by a good play by Keith Perry but left 0:01.7 on the clock. The second pass from the 22 was tipped by the Riders again but Jim Dunn managed to hang on to it at the back of the end zone for a touchdown with no time remaining. The Riders knocked down the two-point conversion pass attempt, leaving the score 29-18 at halftime.
The teams made their gameplan adjustments at halftime. For Piqua, that meant going to the air game. For St. Marys, it meant doing nothing different, which turned out to be the better plan, barely.
Piqua scored quickly on a 46-yard pass to Ty Knox a minute-and-a-half into the third quarter.
Selzer went 8-11 in the second half with a touchdown, at one point completing five passes in a row. The Riders' concentration on the pass showed when Ty Knox popped into the secondary on a draw and sprinted 41 yards for a touchdown to pull the Indians within four points with 4:36 left in the third quarter.
But the story of the game was Roughrider ball control. The offense only touched the ball three times in the second half, but hung on to it for five minutes, four minutes and seven minutes, respectively. The last possession was the key to the win.
In response to Piqua's touchdown bomb, St. Marys marched 63 yards in twelve plays for a touchdown on a Jake Taylor sneak from the one. It would be the only Rider touchdown of the second half, but it was enough.
Piqua began the fourth quarter down four points but owning the ball. The Indians ran a fifteen play drive, aided by two critical St. Marys penalties, that threatened to give them the lead. But the St. Marys defense stiffened when it had to, and turned the Indians away on a fourth-and-eight play at the nine yard line with 7:09 left in the game.
The offense took over, executing a beautiful fifteen rushing play drive that started at the St. Marys nine yard line and ended on the Piqua nine yard line with the victory play more than seven punishing minutes later.
Jermey Frey carried the ball 27 times for a game-leading 146 yards. Aaron Homan had 18 carries for 108 yards. Jake Taylor completed 6 of 8 passes for 61 yards and including touchdown passes to Cody Martin and Matt Watkins.
Dan Roberts was 4-4 on extra point kicks and the Riders were perfect in PAT tries, as Jermey Frey converted a second-quarter 2-point PAT attempt to give the Riders a 3-point lead at the time. The Indians only converted one PAT attempt. The Riders blocked one PAT kick and knocked down two PAT passes, and that proved to be the difference in the score. Both teams scored five touchdowns.
Next week, St. Marys travels to Lima Bath to take on a Wildcat team coming off their big 42-0 thrashing of Allen East tonight.
The Piqua Indians will not be on the 2009 Roughrider football schedule, as the Sidney Yellowjackets return as the St. Marys season opening opponent next year.
The WBL did not fair too well in opening-night action, going 3-7 against off-league opponents. Still, that's an improvement on last season's 0-10 start.
