ST. MARYS – Friday night the host Roughriders earned their first shutout of the season as they blanked visiting Elida 43-0 for their 10th straight win in the series.
The Roughriders kicked off their scoring on their first offensive possession in old school St. Marys style by utilizing seven plays to cover 58 yards and over three minutes before a 21-yard jaunt from junior Dominik Osborne. After the snap for the extra point was botched the blue and gold added a pair of points to push ahead 8-0 with 4:07 left in the opening quarter on quick thinking by Carter Steinberg who rolled out and found an open Keaton Fischbach for the conversion.
A pair of turnover on downs and a punt on the first three drives by Elida set the Riders up deep on their own end of the field in the second quarter. Quarterback Cody Wallace pushed the advantage to 15-0 with 1:04 remaining before halftime and capped off a drive of 7:14 and 82 yards over 16 plays that saw the Riders amass six first downs thanks to their league leading running game.
Colton Mabry increased the Rider lead to 22-0 with 8:37 to play on the opening drive of the second half as he sprinted 38 yards nearly untouched into the endzone on a four minute plus drive coming out of the locker room for his 14th score of the season.
Marching down the field late in the third the blue and gold offense seemed to have turned the ball over on their second drive of the quarter as the football was stripped to the turf. Senior right tackle Tanner Mele alertly however not only kept the football with his squad but connected on his first high school touchdown as he raced 21 yards in for a score and a 29-0 lead after a Logan Rush extra point.
The final two tallies on the scoreboard came from the same back, Caleb Schmidt for St. Marys who instituted the 30+ point differential running clock with his first score at 10:03 left in the game and followed up a Hunter Mabry fumble recovery with his second at 4:24 from 31 yards out to secure the Riders fifth straight victory.
Elida suffers their fourth loss in the last five outings and sees their record dip to 5-4 overall and 4-4 in the Western Buckeye League. Senior Isaac Earl ended the evening 14/25 for 113 yards with top target Amari Wash catching eight balls for 66 yards. The Bulldogs end their regular season taking on Van Wert before beginning the playoffs on the road with a spot in D3 Region 12 locked up.
Outgaining the Bulldogs 380-163 overall, the Riders held a 363-50 advantage on the ground and were paced by Colton Mabry’s 17 carries for 119 yards and a score and Osborne’s 97 yards on 15 rushes and a touchdown.
St. Marys (5-4, 5-3) started the season 0-4 but has now won five straight and have locked up a postseason spot according to JoeEitel.com’s D4 Region 14 rankings. Next up for the Roughriders is a home WBL showdown with Bath next Friday.
“We continue to play extremely hard, that’s a testament to our program. I thought our defense did a great job of bending but not breaking. Our kids were tough tonight in all areas. We’re getting better every week, if we continue to do that we will continue to win” said Roughrider head coach Bo Frye.
Score By Quarter:
Elida 0-0-0-0
St. Marys 8-7-14-14