BATH STADIUM -- The Roughriders struggled on both sides of the ball at Lima Bath Stadium tonight and ended up on the short end of a 26-6 final score. Untimely St. Marys penalties and Bath's running back Aaron Smith combined to frustrate the Roughrider offense and defense all evening, despite a couple of Wildcat gifts.
The first gift from the hosts came immediately. On the first play of the game, Bath quarterback Brad Davis hit receiver Colin Bishop for a short gain. But the Rider defenders were aggressive and stripped the ball for a fumble, and St. Marys' Trey Sherman recovered the ball at the Bath 32 yard line.
The offense was out of sync from the start, getting flagged on an illegal motion penalty before they even got off a snap. Twice during the first possession, the visitors had to call timeouts to avoid delay of game penalties. Three short runs set up a fourth and four play at the Bath 26 yard line.
On fourth down, Roughrider quarterback T.J. Powell rolled out for a big eight yard gain and a first down. One play later, following a time-out, Mitch Newbauer broke free for an 18-yard touchdown, and the Riders had their first lead of the new season at the 9:02 mark of the first quarter. Tyler Albert's PAT kick went wide to the left, and the score was St. Marys 6, Bath 0.
The teams traded punts on their next possessions, but St. Marys punter Jarrett Taylor had the ball kick off the side of his foot out of bounds to give Bath good field position at the St. Marys 44 yard line.
A QB rollout, a 14-yard pass and a Smith 12-yard ramble led to Cody Barbados' 11 yard touchdown run with 2:00 left to play in the first quarter. Bath kicker Davy Briggs never got the ball off due to bad snap, and the score was tied 6-6.
The Riders' subsequent drive stalled out at midfield, but this time Taylor boomed a long punt that was downed at the Bath 13 yard line.
Bath went right back to work, mounting a 13-play drive that ended with Smith barreling into the end zone from the 2 yard line with 6:19 left in the half. The call went to Smith again for the two-point PAT attempt, and he dove into the end zone on a sweep to give Bath a 14-6 lead.
The Roughriders went 3-and-out, gaining 4 yards on 3 running plays.
Aided by a St. Marys 15-yard late hit penalty, Bath ran the ball right down the field. Todd Long took it the final 20 yards for a Bath 20-6 lead. The 2-point PAT pass fell incomplete with 2:13 left in the half.
The Roughriders received the ball first in the second half but were unable to move it, one-two-three-punt. That was the theme of the third quarter, as the teams traded punts in their next two possessions.
Bath returned the second Rider punt of the quarter back to midfield, and the Wildcats were in business again. They launched a massive 15-play drive that ate up nearly six minutes of the clock that capped the game's scoring with 8:27 left in the game. Barbados dove into the end zone from five yards out to increase the score to Bath 26, St. Marys 6. Smith's run was stopped on the two-point PAT attempt, but the damage was done. The Riders faced a 20-point deficit with a little over half of one quarter to play.
The Riders' next two possessions failed on downs, as St. Marys was turned back on a 4th-and-2 running play and saw Senior quarterback Derek Roop's 4th-and-8 pass deflected under heavy pressure to give Bath the ball with 3:00 left in the game. Bath ran out the clock and took a knee to seal the win at the St. Marys 5 yard line.
As for Bath's second gift of the game, it came during the last St. Marys possession. Colin Bishop, who fumbled on the first play of the game, intercepted Derek Roop's pass, returned it to the St. Marys, and fumbled it back to Derek Roop. The Riders got a first down on the exchange of possessions in the play though the ball only advanced one yard overall on what was originally a 3rd-and-8 play. But the Riders could only manage another two yards in four plays and lost the ball on downs.
The last time the Wildcats beat the Roughriders, Bath was 6-0 coming into that game and ranked #1 in Division III. That was in 1999. St. Marys won the next ten contests between the teams, a winning streak that was snapped decisively tonight.
St. Marys accumulated only 146 offensive yards on 44 plays. Mitch Newbauer was the Riders' leading rusher with 62 yards on 14 carries. Derek Roop was two-for-seven in passing for 28 yards and two meaningless desperation-pass interceptions.
Aaron Smith ran for an even 100 yards for Bath, his third consecutive 100+ yard game. Brad Davis completed four of seven passes for 24 yards. Bath finished with 250 yards total offense on 55 plays.
2-1 Bath goes on to face 2-1 Van Wert next week. Tonight the Cougars narrowly defeated the same Elida team that snapped their 10-game losing streak against St. Marys last week.
St. Marys is now winless in the WBL and 1-2 on the season. The Riders come home next week to host the Celina Bulldogs for Homecoming. Celina is 2-1 tonight, after defeating previously unbeaten Wapak, who last week thrashed Bath 56-12.