Defense carries St. John's football

DELPHOS - Delphos St. John's defense hung around long enough until its offense arrived.

When it did, the Blue Jays were able to put away pesky Arlington.

Delphos St. John's established its offense in the third quarter and notched a 24-7 victory over Arlington in the opening round of the Division VI playoffs Friday at Stadium Park.

After a scoreless first quarter, St. John's led 10-0 at the half. The Blue Jays scored 14 in the third quarter to open up a 24-0 bulge.

Part of the problem for St. John's was it lost two fumbles in the first quarter.

"I don't know if it was nerves, but we haven't made those mistakes all year," St. John's coach Todd Schulte said. "It was just a good thing the defense showed up to play in the first half and really put it to them and kept us in the game for the first half."

St. John's (9-2) advances to the regional semifinals to face the Carey (10-1) at 7:30 p.m. Friday at a site to be named. Arlington finished the year 7-4.

The Blue Jays had numerous key holding penalties and had a punt go for 5 yards because of a bad snap early in the second quarter.

"We're happy with the win and we're glad we get to move on, but we're not satisfied with the way we did it," Schulte said. "We'd go two steps forward and three back. Every time we did something positive, we'd come back to something we weren't used to doing."

Sophomore tailback Jordan Leininger, who lost both fumbles, redeemed himself by running for 158 yards on 25 carries. He broke loose on a 53-yard TD and had a 37-yard catch for a score. Fullback Matt Brinkman ran for 75 yards on eight carries.

"I guess it was the playoff blues," Leininger said of the slow start. "We moved the ball, but we kept shooting ourselves in the foot with penalties and fumbles. ... They were pretty good. They came out and hit us more than we thought they were going to hit us. They were pretty physical."

Blue Jays quarterback Wes Ulm ran the option for 62 yards on eight carries. He also completed 5-of-13 for 77 yards and a TD.

Overall, St. John's had 373 yards, with 296 on the ground.

Jordan Rode's 32-yard field goal gave the Blue Jays a 3-0 lead with 3:58 left in the first half.

The next time St. John's had the ball, the Blue Jays went 43 yards in four plays for the score. Ulm's 37-yard TD pass to Leininger gave the Blue Jays a 10-0 lead with 58 seconds left before halftime.

Meanwhile, the St. John's defense was stuffing run-happy Arlington and its wing-T and wishbone. Arlington finished with 134 total yards, 82 on the ground. It had only 54 total yards at the half.

"The defense played outstanding," Schulte said. "We slowed (Matt) Morehart down pretty good tonight."

Arlington's 1,000-yard rusher, Matt Morehart (1,210 yards) was held to 40 yards on 11 carries. Leading the St. John's defense were defensive lineman Tyler Hayson and linebackers Joel Pohlman and Chris Pohlman.

"Their defense is very athletic," Arlington coach Dick Leonard said. "They flow to the ball and are very fundamentally sound. They play good assignment football. There aren't too many times when you can formation kids out of position. ... They shut down our offense pretty well."

The Blue Jays' offensive line began carving out some holes on their first drive of the third quarter. St. John's went 71 yards in four plays for a score. Leininger took a pitch, cut back right and went 53 yards for the TD to push the lead to 17-0.

St. John's made it 24-0 on the next drive when Ulm ran it in from 3-yards out with 7:33 left in the first half.

From there, it was all up to the Blue Jays' defense.