Riders hold off Cougars

ST. MARYS - There was a whole lot of offense between St. Marys and Van Wert Friday night.

But a little defense at the end sealed a Roughrider win.

Caleb Schmidt had 42 carries for 315 yards and six touchdowns, Dyllan Fink batted away a fourth-and-goal pass attempt as time expired, and St. Marys (4-3 overall, 4-2 WBL) prevailed for a 42-35 victory over Van Wert (3-4, 2-4 WBL) on Homecoming Night.

"My goodness, that was like an old-school St. Marys-Kenton shootout," St. Marys coach Bo Frye said. "If we just quit making mistakes, we would have won by 21. It just never stopped. It was kind of how the week went. When you get to Homecoming week, the kids get a little squirrely and they don't execute in certain areas. But I love our kids and they'll be better."

It couldn't have gone much better for Schmidt, who finished with the second-most carries and third-most rushing yards for a single game in school history. His six touchdowns tied his own school record that he set against Celina.

The teams combined for 860 yards of total offense. St. Marys had 398 of its 410 yards by way of the ground. Van Wert quarterback Zach Crummey threw for 461 yards and Micah Cowan had 17 catches for 330 yards. A negative rushing total gave Van Wert 450 yards of total offense. After consistently picking up third and fourth downs all night, the Cougars failed to score on four plays inside the five-yard line with a chance to tie at the end.

St. Marys began the opening drive with 11:56 on the clock. The drive ended in the end zone with 4:24 left in the quarter. The Roughriders marched 67 yards for a 7-0 lead. A 12-yard pass play from quarterback Aiden Meinerding to Grady Hughes kept the series alive on a third-and-12. A Van Wert facemask also moved the chains on a later third down. St. Marys rode Schmidt inside the red zone and he eventually punched in for a one-yard touchdown.

Van Wert tied the game less than three minutes later when the 6-foot-6, 245-pound sophomore Crummey found Keaten Welch for a 19-yard touchdown. Moments earlier, Crummey had extended the series with a two-yard rush on a fourth-and-one inside Van Wert territory.

But the Roughriders led after one quarter. Early in the next series, Schmidt took a handoff up the gut, dodged a handful of defenders and turned on the burners for a 61-yard touchdown.

Van Wert was knocking on the door again early in the second quarter after a 37-yard completion from Crummey to Cowan on a third-and-long. The Cougars were at the 10-yard line when Crummey threw a screen pass to Taylor Compton, who ran 33 yards the other way to put the Roughrider offense in business.

Schmidt surpassed the 1,000-yard rushing mark on the next drive, which ended with his four-yard touchdown run and made the score 20-7 with just under five minutes left in the half.

A few minutes later, another long pass play from Crummey to Cowan put Van Wert right back inside St. Marys territory. The Cougars faced a fourth-and-six when Crummey hit Xavier Kelly for 20 yards. The quarterback crossed the goal line from one-yard out on a fourth-and-one with 2:15 remaining before halftime.

St. Marys recovered a fumble on Van Wert's first play of the second half. Schmidt, who had 133 yards by halftime, needed two runs to cover the 19 yards for his fourth touchdown with 11:34 left in the frame.

Van Wert's passing game continued to cause problems for St. Marys, though. Cowan had an impressive catch over a Roughrider defender for a gain of 46 on third down, which gave him nine catches on nine targets for 163 yards.The Cougars cut the score to 28-21 on a five-yard pass from Crummey to Welch.

Schmidt popped a 20-yard run on St. Marys next snap. He later finished another drive in the end zone, punching in from two yards out to reach 215 yards on 26 carries.

St. Marys forced the first punt on Van Wert's next possession, but a chance for a three-score lead was squandered due to the muffing of said punt. Van Wert recovered, and Crummey delivered a strike to Cowan for a 58-yard touchdown on the next snap.

Schmidt made it a two-score game again with a 23-yard touchdown before the third quarter ended.

Cowan caught a 32-yard pass on Van Wert's next possession. He followed by taking a screen pass 28 yards with his team facing a third-and-20. It was fourth-and-22 later in the drive when Crummey threw deep to Welch, who made a contested catch in the end zone to make it a 42-35

St. Marys started at its own five-yard line with 10:30 left and possessed the ball for the next 8 1/2 minutes. They were stopped short on a fourth-and-one, which gave Van Wert a chance at the end.

"Schmidt's been good all season," Frye said. "Our offensive line has been pretty solid, too. The only thing I'm mad about is that we didn't get the daggone first down on that fourth-and-one. We could have put them to bed there."

They outlasted Van Wert at the end, though.

The Cougars had most of the field to cover, but did so quickly with a couple of big pass plays. The Cougars were at the three-yard line with 30 seconds left thanks to a long catch and run by Cowan. They threw behind the line of scrimmage and lost four yards on the next play. St. Marys was flagged for a pass interference on the following play, but Tre Moore and Fink ended the game with back-to-back pass deflections in the end zone.

"The quarterback is a big boy and he can throw the ball," Frye said. "They've got good skill-position players and we were having a tough time covering them. ... Thankfully for us, we ran the Wing-T pretty well tonight and we had some guys step up in key moments. That usually works out pretty well for us."