ST. MARYS – Friday night’s second week of the season looked like a successful franchise movie sequel for the Roughrider offense as they steamrolled visiting Celina 35-6 to move to 2-0.
Senior Dominik Osborne nearly opened the game with a kickoff return for a touchdown before being taken down in Bulldog territory in what could have been viewed as a sign things would be going the way of the blue and gold.
Over the course of 15 plays and seven plus minutes the vaunted running attack plodded and pushed their way 44 yards to the first score of the night, a yard plunge from Colton Mabry to take a 7-0 lead.
“We have a veteran group that has not yet touched their potential” said fourth year Rider boss Bo Frye.
St. Marys didn’t have to wait long to find a second chance with the football thanks to a Celina fumble and a Parker Beam recovery at the Bulldog 31 on the ensuing kickoff.
Five runs by Osborne and three runs by Mabry pushed the home team advantage to 14-0 with 1:03 left in the opening quarter as the latter thundered in from two yards out.
Seniors Bobby Morris and Jon Lutz teamed up to get Celina their first and only score of the night with 11:19 remaining before the half as Lutz raced 61 yards down the sideline and Morris snuck in from a yard out. Unfortunately for the Bulldogs their extra point attempt was thwarted by Luke Borns to keep the deficit at 14-6.
Starting from their own 37 after a pair of unsuccessful fourth down conversions by both teams, the Roughriders raced 63 yards just before the half to take a 21-6 lead capped off by Osborne on 4th and two scampering 30 yards for his fourth score of the season.
After stymieing the first drive of the second half for the Bulldogs, St. Marys again added a long scoring drive to their game resume to take a 28-6 lead on a QB sneak from signal caller Jacob Kessler.
Caleb Schmidt, St. Marys third leading rusher a week ago put his stamp on the final score of the evening for the home team. Schmidt, a 5’11 senior fullback added a score to his 86 yard output with 5:20 left for his first of the season.
“It was a very weird week” said Frye. “Our kids did a great job fighting through and playing their best on Friday, I’m proud of them.”
Celina (1-1, 0-1) was led on the ground by Jon Lutz’ 75 yards on just seven carries while the duo of Bobby Morris, and Cohen Harter hit for just 3/8 for 22 yards collectively through the air.
The Bulldogs return home for a week three clash against Shawnee while the Riders (2-0, 1-0) are off for their only away contest in the first half of the season on Friday when they visit Defiance.
Dominik Osborne paced the blue and gold ground gainers with 108 yards and a score on 21 carries while Mabry notched his sixth straight 100+ effort dating back to last season with 101 yards and two touchdowns on 24 carries for St. Marys.
“We have not completed a pass yet but we are very capable. I thought our special teams and two platoon football benefitted us tonight” said Frye. “We’ve worked extremely hard to make things great again here in St. Marys.”
St. Marys moves to 70-30-6 all-time against their Grand Lake rivals and improves their record at Grand Lake Health Systems Field to 28-3 with the win.
“I thought the Celina kids played extremely hard and were very well coached” stated Frye about the visiting Bulldogs.