St. Marys’ Jacob Kessler looks to avoid Elida’s Seth Sharp during Friday night’s game in St. Marys.
Richard Parrish | The Lima News
ST. MARYS — The first four weeks of the football season did not go well for St. Marys.
The Roughriders lost their first four games of the campaign.
However, since the fifth week of the season, St. Marys has been on a roll.
Coming into Friday’s Western Buckeye League matchup with Elida, St. Marys was riding a four-game winning streak.
St. Marys continued its winning ways Friday when it steamrolled past Elida 43-0, notching its fifth consecutive victory on the year.
With the win, St. Marys improves to 5-4 overall and 4-4 in the WBL. Elida slips to 5-4 overall and 4-4 in league play.
“We’re clicking right now. So, sometimes when it’s clicking, it’s hard to defend the way we play football,” St. Marys head coach Bo Frye said. “It’s five (wins) in a row. The morale is pretty high right now.”
Frye said his athletes struggled the first four weeks of the season.
“Our kids stayed together. … That’s a big thing. We lost a couple seniors. But the ones who stuck together bought in to this. I said, ‘If you stay with me, we’re going to win’. We’re getting better; and that’s the big thing,” Frye said.
Friday night, the Roughriders rolled up 352 rushing yards. Defensively, St. Marys held Elida’s offensive unit to 167 total yards (113 passing, 54 rushing).
St. Marys had a lethal one-two punch in the backfield Friday night.
Colton Mabry led the way for the Roughriders with 113 rushing yards on 17 carries and had a touchdown. Teammate Dominik Osborne rushed for 98 yards on 15 touches with a TD.
“Those guys are good football players (Osborne and Mabry),” Frye said. “They both squat about 500 pounds. They are both physical kids. They play football. … That’s all they do here.”
St. Marys led 8-0 at the end of the first quarter, and 15-0 by the halftime break. The Roughriders extended their lead to 29-0 by the third stop.
Caleb Schmidt (5 rushes, 46 yards) scored two TDs for St. Marys. Schmidt had TD runs of 6 and 31 yards – both in the fourth quarter.
Quarterback Cody Wallace found the end zone. Late in the first half, Wallace ran it in from 2 yards out, that capped off a 14-play, 82-yard scoring drive for St. Marys.
In the passing department, Wallace was 2 for 2 for 17 yards.
Also scoring for the Roughriders was lineman Tanner Mele, who scooped up a St. Marys fumble, late in the third quarter, and ran it in from 21 yards for a TD.
David Etzkorn led Elida with 46 rushing yards on 14 carries. Elida quarterback Isaac Earl was 14 of 25 passing for 113 yards. A’mari Wash hauled in eight passes for 67 yards. Jackson Covault had three receptions for 35 yards for the Bulldogs.
Frye points to the decision of playing his athletes on just one side of the football as a key to the resurgence of his team.
“We went to two-platoon football about week two, week three; and we’ve gotten better,” Frye said. “Even our young guys coming into the game – they play one position. (Having) two-platoon football, I credit that.”
Frye praised his linemen on how they have improved.
“We’ve been getting better up front. We take pride in that. We take pride with our trench guys – on both sides of the ball,” Frye said. “We’ve been pretty good there for about 10 years. But at the beginning of the season, I did not think they were doing very well. I didn’t sleep too well, going 0-4.”
Game summary
Score by quarters:
Elida 0 0 0 0 – 0
St. Marys 8 7 14 14 – 43
Scoring:
St. Marys–Dominik Osborne 21 run (pass good)
St. Marys–Cody Wallace 2 runs (Logan Rush kick)
St. Marys–Colton Mabry 38 run (Logan Rush kick)
St. Marys – Tanner Mele fumble recovery TD (Logan Rush kick)
St. Marys -Caleb Schmidt 6 run (Logan Rush kick)
St. Marys – Caleb Schmidt 31 run (Logan Rush kick)
Elida St. Marys
12 First downs ‘17
167 Total yardage 369
54 Rushing yardage 352
113 Passing yardage 17
14-24-0 Passing (Com-Att-Int) 2-2-0
1-1 Fumbles-Lost 1-1
3-37.3 Punts-Average 1-14.0
3-17 Penalties-Yards 2-10
Individual leaders:
Passing: Elida-Isaac Earl 14-25-113; St. Marys-Cody Wallace 2-2-17.
Rushing: Elida-David Etzkorn 14-46; St. Marys-Colton Mabry 17-113.
Receiving: Elida-A’mari Wash 8-67; St. Marys-Keaton Fischbach 1-9.
