ST. MARYS – Four times since moving into Grand Lake Health Field St. Marys has tasted defeat, a result Wapak handed the Roughriders on Friday night with a 28-14 road triumph.
Two seasons ago the Redskins defeated St. Marys 29-22 in an overtime clash of two of the premier programs in the Western Buckeye League in the second all-time home loss for the Roughriders at their newest stadium.
“I thought our kids played extremely hard, but we just gave up too many big plays tonight” said St. Marys fourth year head coach Bo Frye. “We lost on special teams, and special teams are a big deal in our program.”
Trailing just 14-7 coming out of the halftime break the Roughriders found themselves within a score of the seventh ranked Redskins, until the opening kickoff of the third when Wapak returner Jarrett Mullen exploded for a 95 yard return to the St. Marys five.
One play is all the Redskins needed to stake claim to a two score advantage thanks to Mullen again who charged in to give his troops a 21-7 lead.
Wapak utilized big play after big play on the evening to keep St. Marys off balance and opened their own scoring with an 80-yard strike from Caleb Moyer to Grant Stauffer following a missed field goal attempt by the Riders.
Special teams plays haunted both squads in the early going, as St. Marys suffered a blocked punt and near return for a score while Wapak fell victim to a missed field goal of their own on the games ensuing possession.
Undaunted and motivated to tie up the game, St. Marys marched 80 yards of their own on the back of 16 running plays and into the endzone on a Dominik Osborne two yard jaunt with 3:40 remaining before halftime.
Three first downs and 10 plays after starting from their own 20 the Redskins celebrated with just seconds to go in the quarter as junior quarterback Caleb Moyer fired a pass to classmate Kaden Page at the goal line for a 33 yard hookup and a 14-7 lead.
Similarly to their long drive to tie the game in the first half, St. Marys worked 80 yards down the field in the third over 14 plays and six first downs to cut the deficit to 21-14 thanks to a Jacob Kessler run with 1:59 in the games penultimate period.
For the fourth time in the game a team covered 80 yards on their way to a score just moments later as a third down pass of 33 yards from Moyer to Louisville bound tight end Grant Houser sent the visitors ahead 28-14.
Unable to utilize the services of standout runningback Colton Mabry due to injury, the Roughriders were forced to get creative with their offensive game planning against an aggressive Wapak defense and did just that. Quarterback Jacob Kessler rushed a career high 16 times for 77 yards and a score while seeing a bulk of his carries come from under center and finish with five to seven yards per tote of the football.
Dominik Osborne paced the ground gainers for St. Marys (2-2, 1-2) on the evening with his third 100+ yard game of the season while backfield mate Caleb Schmidt added 62 yards on 10 carries as one of seven players to rush the ball on the evening.
“The good news is none of us are quitting” quipped Bo Frye. “We’re going to keep working and find a way to get back in the win column. It’s going to take our best effort the rest of the way from the players and coaches.”
Wapak (4-0, 3-0) notches their 11th straight Western Buckeye League tilt and find themselves off to their best start since a 4-0 mark in 2019. Next up for the Redskins is a home outing next Friday night with 1-3 Van Wert.
“Credit our players for earning a hard fought victory” said Wapak boss Travis Moyer who improves to 8-3 against St. Marys in his career. “It was a great team win and I thought our guys made big time plays in all three phases of the game.”
Caleb Moyer finished 5/10 for 171 yards and a trio of scores through the air with top targets Grant Stauffer and Kaden Page finishing with two catches each and 97 and 42 yards respectively.
Jarrett Mullen led the Redskin attack carrying the football with a 100 yard effort and a score on 14 rushes.
St. Marys outrushed their rivals from Wapak 281-131 but were outgained overall 307-298 despite a 33:20 to 9:09 advantage in time of possession in the game.
Ottawa Glandorf (2-2) who secured the 200th win of veteran Ken Schriner’s career on Friday will visit the Riders next weekend for a week five WBL clash.