ST. MARYS – Friday night’s Homecoming festivities gave St. Marys a reason to be in a good mood but the final score will provide an even greater reason to celebrate through the weekend as the Roughriders stopped a three game slide against Ottawa Glandorf with a 41-12 victory at Grand Lake Health System Field.
After starting with the football for the fourth straight week to open the season the Riders wasted no time jumpstarting their offense in front of a capacity crowd by chewing over eight minutes off the clock and into the endzone on the 18th play of the opening drive of the game to take a lead they would never relinquish.
Junior quarterback Cody Wallace tossed his third touchdown pass of the year and second to Brayden Sullivan with 3:53 remaining in the opening stanza from 16 yards away as the duo hooked up to send the home squad ahead 7-0.
Following a three and out punt by Ottawa Glandorf the host offense found themselves again with the football but this time starting near midfield. Six plays and 55 yards this time around would be capped off the same way as the first score as Wallace fired a pass over the head of would be defenders and into the waiting arms of Sullivan for a 31-yard score and a 14-0 lead just seconds into the second quarter.
St. Marys third possession of the first half began at their own 27 thanks to a penalty but again ended in a score from a yard out by Wallace that followed a 53-yard jaunt by Colton Mabry into Titan territory and a quartet of successful carries by the Rider backfield.
Trailing 21-0 with 5:32 before the halftime break the Titans found themselves finally able to dent the scoring column as a pass that appeared to be headed towards being picked off by the Roughrider defense instead found the hands of Grant Schroeder who raced 49 yards for his first score of the season. Unfortunately for Ottawa Glandorf the ensuing extra point was blocked to keep the deficit at 21-6.
Ottawa Glandorf worked the momentum gained with their score and forcing a subsequent St. Marys punt to their second and ultimately final score of the evening with 1:04 to go before the break when a run from a yard out by Cy Rump capped off a drive that began with a 57 yard catch and run at the Titan 27.
Each team finished the half by tossing an interception to the other, Manny Carrillo for OG and Keegan Sharpe for St. Marys, but the highlight of the last few minutes belonged to the visitors. After the snag by Carrillo the Titans Cy Rump seemed to be knocked down near the goal line but slipped through would be defenders and raced 64 yards into opponent territory.
OG’s drive would provide heartbreak for the fans traveling to St. Marys as a gain to the Roughrider one was called back on a penalty assessed for a blind side block to a chorus of boos.
Aiden Hinkle, the Western Buckeye League’s leading rusher put his stamp on the second half as he opened the scoring for the hosts with his sixth rushing touchdown of the season on the Riders opening drive with 8:50 to make it 27-12 before a 2-point conversion run attempt was snuffed out by OG.
Proving the age old theory of “sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good”, the Roughriders kickoff rolled near the Titan sideline and was recovered by Heath Dilsaver who promptly returned it to the 13. Six plays and 13 yards after starting with the football the blue and gold punched into endzone on the ground for the second time in three minutes, this time from a yard away on Brayden Sullivan’s third score of the game to run the advantage to 34-12.
The final mark of the game pushed St. Marys to 41-12 as Hinkle notched his third game this season with two rushing touchdowns, a five yard jaunt to provide his WBL leading seventh score of the season on the ground.
Junior Landon Morman, a first year starter under center for the Titans connected on 10 of his 21 passes for 193 yards, a touchdown and an interception. Leading the way catching the ball for OG was Grant Schroeder who hauled in half a dozen offerings for 140 yards and a score.
Adding to the season high 345 yards of total offense for Ottawa Glandorf was Cy Rump who finished with 108 yards on 12 rushes and a score for the Titans who see their record slip to 0-4 overall, and 0-3 in WBL play. Next week the Titans will take on Bath.
St. Marys improves to 3-1 on the year and moves to 2-1 in the Western Buckeye League standings and will travel to Van Wert to battle a once beaten Cougars squad who fell to Wapak on Friday night 20-19 thanks to a late blocked punt returned for a touchdown.
Cody Wallace hit on 6 of 9 for 87 yards and accounted for two passing touchdowns for the second time this year with both accounted for by Brayden Sullivan (4 receptions, 68 yards).
Though the touchdowns belonged to teammates Aiden Hinkle (16 rushes, 68 yards, 2 scores), and Brayden Sullivan (8 rushes, 44 yards, 1 touchdown), Colton Mabry ended the night as the top ground gainer for the #1 rushing offense in the league with 96 yards on just six rushes for the victorious Roughriders.
St. Marys named senior soccer standout Morgan Hesse their 2022 Homecoming Queen before the game kicked off.