St. John's makes Carey pay for mistakes

KENTON - Carey was big, quick and physical.

But Carey made three critical mistakes and that turned the tide for Delphos St. John's.

Delphos St. John's capitalized on two recovered fumbles and a roughing the kicker penalty to bump off Carey 21-14 in the Division IV football regional semifinals Friday at Kenton.

"We knew they were going to be physical coming in," St. John's quarterback Wes Ulm said of Carey. "The thing that surprised me was their speed. I didn't think they were going to be as fast as they were. .... But we kept it in our hands and they gave it to us a couple of times and we could capitalize on it."

St. John's (10-2) advances to the regional championship game against Ada (12-0) next Friday at a site to be named. Carey ends its season 10-2.

The Blue Jays led the whole game, including 14-0 after the first quarter and 14-7 at the half. St. John's held a 21-7 lead after three quarters, but Carey got within 21-14 with 8:36 to play.

Ulm paced the St. John's attack by completing 6-of-11 for 92 yards and touchdown. He also ran for 40 yards and a 25-yard score. Jordan Leininger finished with 58 yards on 14 carries.

Carey had one final drive with 1:01 left to play and the ball on its own 43. But on first down, a halfback option pass was picked off by St. John's Tyler Bergfeld to seal the victory.

"I was definitely worried coming in," St. John's coach Todd Schulte said. "I told my wife coming in, ‘I don't have a good feeling and I don't have a bad feeling. I'm right in the middle.' And 21-14 is a right-in-the-middle feeling. I knew we were in for a dogfight.

"Turnovers were the big difference. The best thing is we capitalized on two turnovers and got 14 points on them. To get a short field in big games like this ..."

The Blue Jays' first score came after Jordan Rode easily knocked down a 32-yard field goal. But the field goal was taken off the board because of a first down on a roughing the kicker penalty against Carey. That gave the Blue Jays a first down at the Carey 7.

Two plays later, Ulm hit fullback Matt Brinkman on a 7-yard TD to give St. John's a 7-0 lead with 4:28 left in the first quarter.

The next time Carey had the ball it fumbled it over when St. John's Evan Burgei recovered a wild pitchout from quarterback Tyler Brodman at the Carey 25.

Ulm then ran the option to the right, then cut back left and went 25 yards for the score to push the St. John's lead to 14-0 with 2:33 left in the first quarter.

"I just run. I give credit to the guys up front," Ulm said.

Carey pounded ahead with its wishbone attack and went 57 yards in 11 plays to score on a Derek Stock's 10-yard TD run to close the game to 14-7. Stock finished the night with a team-high 84 yards on 18 carries. Brodman had 70 yards on 15 carries.

The game was stopped for close to 25 minutes early in the third quarter when a Carey lineman was taken off on a stretcher with a possible neck injury.

The next time Carey had the ball, it lost a fumble when St. John's Ben Suever recovered at the Carey 35. Four plays later, Burgei went around the right side for a 5-yard TD to push the Blue Jays' lead to 21-7.

Carey closed the gap to 21-14 when Brodman got loose on a fourth-and-4 play and took it off the left side for a 71-yard TD with 8:36 left.

Overall, St. John's defense was steady, holding the wishbone to 213 total yards, 206 on the ground. St. John's linebacker Chris Pohlman finished with 14 tackles.

"I thought our kids got a lot of guys to the ball," Schulte said. "I thought our defense played pretty well, besides the long run. I thought we did a good job of making them grind yards out."