ELIDA – St. Marys running back Dominik Osborne achieved a rare mark in school history in Friday night’s 52-31 win over host Elida by rushing for five touchdowns.
Osborne, a 5’9, 175 pound senior led his Roughriders (7-2, 6-2) to their 10th straight win over Elida while ending the evening with 174 yards on 16 carries in addition to his five scores.
“I had energy from my team, we worked hard all week in practice and focused on energy” said Osborne. “The energy could be felt from everyone in the game.”
Touchdown runs of 12 and five yards in the first half helped the Riders jump out to a 31-21 halftime advantage over the Bulldogs (2-7, 1-7).
“Osborne continues to run hard” said St. Marys head coach Bo Frye. “He’s a great kid and is playing behind an offensive line that has been clicking lately.”
After forcing an Elida punt that was the only non-scoring drive of the nine combined possessions in the first half, St. Marys jumped out to a 14-0 lead on their second go round with the football.
Junior quarterback Aiden Meindering’s 22-yard toss to senior Jacob Kessler pushed the advantage to two scores for the visitors and represented the second of the season through the air for Meinerding, and the first for Kessler.
Meinerding, the backup QB to Kessler when the season began ended his night by completing both of his passes for 34 yards to Kessler and sophomore speedster Tre Moore.
Starting from their own 20 yard line after the second of four kickoff touchbacks from St. Marys kicker Bradey Triplett, Elida marched down the field for their first score behind senior Ryan McGue.
McGue finished the game by completing 23 of 38 passes for 311 yards and three touchdowns through the air while running for another. Senior classmate Tyler Dillon caught the first of the trio of markers on the aforementioned drive as he hauled in an open 25 yard effort to cut the lead to 14-7.
Though a second Osborne jaunt pushed the Roughriders back ahead by 14, Elida again trimmed their deficit to a single touchdown just moments later just inside the second quarter. McGue’s pass to tight end Connor Konopka (eight receptions, 128 yards) moved the score to 21-14 St. Marys.
Not to be outdone by his backfield mate Osborne, Colton Mabry blitzed through the left side of the line with 10:09 remaining in the opening half for his eighth rushing score of the season.
Mabry would finish the contest with 125 yards on 18 carries to join the 100+ yard club and find himself just in front of teammate Caleb Schmidt (seven rushes, 100 yards) in the rushing department.
Elida capped off a 12-play drive with 4:48 to again get within a score at 28-21 on McGue’s rushing score, but found themselves back down by double digits thanks to a 28-yard field goal from Triplett seconds before the half.
The Bulldogs stuck another long drive and score on the board to open the second half, this time finishing with a 12-yard hookup from McGue to Konopka with 6:58 to make the score 31-28 St. Marys.
Osborne opened the night with the second highest rushing touchdown mark of 13, just one behind Van Wert quarterback Briston Wyse. On the first three drives of the second half for St. Marys, the senior RB marched in from 13, 32, and 18 yards away to account for 18 of his teams 21 points.
Limited to just a trio of points after their opening drive in the third, a field goal by Marc Troyer, the Bulldogs were held mostly in check in the final moments by the Roughrider defense.
Sophomore standout Parker Beam quashed a potential Elida rally in the final minutes as he picked off a hurried throw by McGue to allow his own team to run out the balance of the clock.
St. Marys has now celebrated wins in their last five straight games by a combined score of 228-89 and sit in the eight spot in D3R12 according to Joe Eitel and have clinched a playoff spot with the win over Elida.
Elida will finish up their 2024 regular season next Friday evening when they travel to Van Wert (4-5) while the Roughriders will hit the road to visit Bath (5-4).
“Obviously this was not our best night of football, but our kids overcame and found a way to win the game” said Frye. “A testament to Elida tonight, their kids played extremely hard. It was not in the game plan to give up 31 points, but we found a way to get some stops.”
St. Marys outgained Elida 427-84 on the ground while the Bulldogs dominated the air 311-222 in the loss. The two teams combined for 15 penalties and 120 yards on the evening and finished 10/10 collectively inside the red zone.