ELIDA -- St. Marys wrapped up a fourth of a share of its 22nd Western Buckeye League Championship with a 68-20 victory at Elida Friday night. For the first time in the 71-year history of the league four teams finished tied for the top spot as the Roughriders, Kenton, Defiance and Shawnee all finish at 7-2.
St. Marys now awaits a Sunday announcement from the Ohio High School Athletic Association that will determine its playoff fate. Most projections have the Riders finishing in the top eight of Region 10. The top eight qualify for the playoffs, while the top four teams host a first round game.
The Riders finished the regular season at 8-2 overall, and were never really threatened by the 0-10 Bulldogs.
Jeremey Frey and Dylan Dietz each rushed for more than 100 yards in the first quarter, as the Riders burst out to a 21-0 lead and never looked back.
Frey scored four first half touchdowns and ran for 185 yards as he eclipsed the 1,000-yard rushing mark for the season.
Total domination would be a weak way to describe St. Marys' first half. The Riders rolled up 18 first downs in the first half compared to zero for Elida. The Riders rushed the ball 40 times for 434 yards in the first, and did not attempt a pass.
Frey scored the first four touchdowns on runs of 12, 52, 28 and one yard. Aaron Homan tacked on a 20-yard touchdown run and Cody Martin scored from five yards away to round out the scoring in the first half.
Elida ended its offensive drought by going to the air on its first possession of the second half. After a 28-yard completion to T.J. Warren, Elida quarterback Alex McAdams connected with Austin Etzler for a 36-yard touchdown pass to put the Bulldogs on the scoreboard.
The Riders bounced right back with a seven-yard touchdown run by Cody Martin, and a two-yard TD burst by Junior Justin Thomas for a 55-7 lead.
Elida added a JV touchdown in the fourth quarter on an 11-yard run by freshman quaterback Reggie McAdams. St. Marys answered again as Thomas scored from four yards out for his second TD of the night. Allen Broyles added the PAT kick to make the score 62-13.
The scoring parade contined, as Reggie McAdams hooked up with Michael Knox from 25 yards out, cutting the Rider lead to 42 at 62-20. But a few minutes later it was Kyle Puschel scoring from five yards out to make the final score 68-20.
The Riders set a school record with 34 first downs in the game. St. Marys did not attempt a pass in the game as all 70 offensive plays were all on the ground. And the 677 yards of total rushing was just two yards shy of the team record for a single game. Frey led the way with 185 yards rushing. Dietz finished with 127 and Cody Martin with 109. Fourteen different Roughriders carried the ball in the game.
Just about all of Elida's offense came in the second half, and most of that was through the air, as three different Bulldog quarterbacks combined to complete 12 of 24 passes for 191 yards.
Joe Eitel's unofficial Harbin points calculations project St. Marys to finish sixth in Region 10. That would result in a pairing with #3 Tippecanoe at Tipp City, a replay of the 2006 opening round playoff game that the Riders won 21-14.
Eitel's chart also shows Defiance and Urbana to be locked in a tie for the eighth playoff spot in Region 10; the OHSAA will have to rule on the tiebreaker to decide which team advances. Kenton and Shawnee finished out of the running in a tie for tenth place.
Ottawa-Glandorf finished in seventh place in the Div. IV Region 14 rankings despite their 6-4 record. O-G will take on the undefeated Clearview Clippers at Lorain in the first round.
All other results staying the same, if St. Marys had defeated 3-7 Sidney instead of 6-4 Piqua this year, the Riders would not have qualified for the playoffs.
