KENTON – In the words of the late rapper DMX the St. Marys Roughriders stopped, dropped, and opened up shop from the opening play of Friday night’s Western Buckeye League contest at Kenton’s Robinson Field as they rushed past the Wildcats 48-7.
On his lone carry of the contest St. Marys senior Tanner Howell opened the ballgame with a 22 yard sprint across midfield and was followed by a 28 yard jaunt from teammate Braeden Hemmelgarn to push the Riders to the into the redzone.
Freshman running back Colton Mabry notched his second score of the season on the games next play for St. Marys as he thundered in untouched for a 14 yard touchdown run to put his squad on top 7-0 with just :25 gone in the opening period following the Brandon Bowers extra point.
Defensively the Roughriders pulled off the first of their 11 sacks on the evening on the first Kenton possession and forced the Wildcats into a three and out series that set up their own offense at the 28.
Despite being hit for a holding penalty on their first play of the ensuing drive the St. Marys offense once again quickly found paydirt as a two play drive resulted in a Hemmelgarn five yard score for a 14-0 advantage with 10:04 remaining on the first quarter clock.
After a second three and out that included a sack from the defensive line the Riders again went to work and pushed across a 21-0 lead thanks to another two play drive that finished with the first career score from Keegan Sharpe’s career at 8:43.
Working for the third straight possession with a short field the blue and gold offense utilized a facemask penalty on the Kenton defense and the first pass reception of the season for tight end Ryan Meier for a quick 25 yards and capped off the seven play drive with a Brayden Sullivan three yard score. The extra point from Brandon Bowers was blocked however by the Kenton line and the score remained 27-0 with 3:59 left in the first.
Starting from their own 19 on their fourth trip with the football the host Wildcats moved the football efficiently through the air and aided by St. Marys penalties but saw their most positive trip come to an end after a sack and a pair of incompletions at the Roughrider 28 early in the second period.
Ross Henschen split a pair of Kenton defenders and worked his offense to their own 41 on the first play of the drive before teammate Braeden Hemmelgarn finished off the drive five plays later with his second score of the game, a 41 yard scamper to give St. Marys a 34-0 advantage.
Two more Roughrider sacks of Kenton freshman QB Korbin Johnson and a punt later and the Riders were again working with a short field as they began their sixth drive of the first half at the Wildcat 39.
Six different players carried the football for St. Marys on their eight play drive and saw it capped off with the second rushing touchdown of the season from QB Gavin Reineke with 3:27 to go before the half for a 41-0 lead.
St. Marys would find themselves with the football once more before the half following a Kenton punt but were unable to add to their lead as an attempted field goal of 52 yards by Brandon Bowers fell short.
The second half was played with a running clock under OHSAA rules thanks to the 41 point differential and opened with Kenton able to move the football and pick up a pair of first downs but again haunted by a trio of Rider sacks saw their drive come to an end with a punt.
Following the first St. Marys punt of the game the Kenton offense picked up 59 yards on three passing plays and a penalty and found themselves into the endzone on a 15 yard passing touchdown from Johnston to Grady Kleman-Beazley to end the shutout with under a minute left in the third.
Utilizing their backups the Roughriders marched from their own 44 and into the endzone for the games final score on seven plays when a QB sneak by sophomore signal caller Carter Steinberg ran the advantage to 47-7 St. Marys before an extra point from teammate Logan Rush finished off the scoring.
Over the last 5:53 of the game the St. Marys backups moved the football down the field gobbling up yards behind the duo of Brenden Ackley and Luke Borns to run out the clock and secure the sixth straight victory in the series for the Roughriders.
Kenton sees their record drop to 0-7 overall and 0-6 in Western Buckeye League games and will hit the road next week to take on league leading Van Wert.
Korbin Johnston finished 19 of 36 for 148 yards and a touchdown through the air but the Wildcat offense amassed just 87 total yards as he was sacked 11 times for a loss of 61 yards. Kooper Johnston led the receivers with 10 catches for 52 yards.
St. Marys (5-2, 4-2) will entertain Elida next week at Grand Lake Health Field where it will be Hall of Fame Night in St. Marys.
Offensively the Riders rushed 52 times for 386 yards led by Braeden Hemmelgarn’s 82 yards and two scores on six carries. QB Gavin Reineke completed 4 of 7 passes on the evening for 34 yards and connected with four different targets.