ST. MARYS – Friday night as the host Roughriders blanked visiting Bath 31-0 the blue and gold rushing attack accomplished a feat for the first time since 2016.
Entering week 10 the duo of Colton Mabry and Dominik Osborne needed to rush for 13 and 69 yards respectively to join the St. Marys 1,000+ yard club. Mabry finished the evening with 143 yards and a touchdown while Osborne ended with 128 yards to become the first duo since Eric Spicer and Julius Fisher to run for 1,000 in the same season.
“Colton Mabry and Dominik Osborne continue to run hard. They are great at finishing forward. It’s been a while since we’ve had two 1,000 yard rushers, the plan is to keep them going” said St. Marys head coach Bo Frye on his running back duo.
St. Marys opened the contest with the football at their own 10-yard line but were forced to punt after being unable to pick up a third down conversion. Unfortunately for Bath the ensuing punt from Hunter Sprague that saw the ball in the air after it sailed over it’s intended targets head was fumbled by a Wildcat returner at midfield and went back to the Roughriders.
Working with new life on their first offensive opportunity the hosts rushed 14 times through the final six minutes of the first quarter and into the second before being forced to settle for a 24-yard field goal, the first of the season for kicker Logan Rush to take a 3-0 lead.
Trailing and starting from their own 20 with 10:21 remaining in the first half on their first chance with the football the Wildcats moved deep into St. Marys territory on an 11-play drive but found themselves stopped at the one yard line on fourth down while attempting to take the lead.
Quarterback Cody Wallace engineered a 99-yard drive for the Roughriders with 5:27 going by the wayside over the course of 15 plays to give his squad a 10-0 lead before the half with a seven yard scoring run. Wallace’s biggest contribution to the drive came while facing a 2nd and 25 early in the drive as he tucked the ball tight on a bootleg and ran 20 yards through open space into Wildcat territory.
Following a Noah Dixon pick of Bath quarterback Zach Welsch the Riders again moved down the field while milking time off of the clock to jump ahead 17-0 on a three yard plunge from Colton Mabry that saw the junior account for 44 yards on the scoring drive.
Back to back gains, a 20 yard run and a three yard rush gave Cody Wallace his second touchdown of the game and pushed the lead to 24-0 with 7:20 remaining in the fourth.
Caleb Schmidt’s three yard touchdown run notched the final marker of the game with 1:25 to go and set in motion the running clock for the sixth straight win this season and the eighth in a row in the series for the Roughriders.
St. Marys dominated the time of possession 35:11 to 12:23 on offense while holding the Wildcats to 137 total yards on defense while running their streak of shutouts by quarter to nine in a row. The Roughriders outgained Bath 397-137 overall with a 397-28 advantage coming on the ground.
Bath (4-6, 3-6) have clinched a playoff spot according to Joe Eitel: https://joeeitel.com/hsfoot/region.jsp?region=14&year=2023 but will await to see where they are headed during the first week of the postseason.
Zach Welsch ended the night 6/15 for 109 yards and an interception through the air while Mikey Hale paced the rushers with 38 yards on 10 carries for the visitors.
St. Marys (6-4, 6-3) is expected to host in the first round of the playoffs next week according to Joe Eitel at Grand Lake Health Systems Field where they have won 25 of 28 all-time games including a 4-1 record this season.
Score By Quarter:
St. Marys 0-10-7-14
Bath 0-0-0-0