Crescent-News.com - Turnovers spark St. Marys past Defiance

By TIM McDONOUGH
mcdonough@crescent-news.com
Air St. Marys?

Roughrider signal-caller Jake Taylor threw three touchdown passes to lead usually run-oriented St. Marys to a convincing 20-6 Western Buckeye League victory over the Bulldogs of Defiance on a wet, sloppy Friday night at Fred J. Brown Stadium.

St. Marys (4-0, 3-0 WBL) turned three turnovers by Defiance (3-1, 2-1 WBL) into all 20 of its points in the victory, taking advantage of a short field twice on fumbles, while turning an interception into another score.

Heading into the game Defiance head coach Jerry Buti and St. Marys mentor Doug Frye knew that the team that controlled the line of scrimmage would win the contest. It was the St. Marys defense front that proved to the be difference in the ballgame.

"I think defensively we won the battle up front and overall our defense did a nice job," said Frye whose team came into the fracas ranked No. 6 in the state in Division III. "Our ability to throw the ball around also helped us out a great deal tonight."

"St. Marys was certainly awful tough against the run tonight, we didn't look like a running football team at all," said Buti about his Bulldogs, ranked No. 11 in D-III. "They handled the conditions better than we did. We said going in when it's pouring down rain, you can't turn the ball over and you've got to play field position. We didn't do either one. We couldn't get out of the hole, give St. Marys credit for that."

The first break of the game went to St. Marys when David Long pounced a fumble by Defiance's Alex Perez at the DHS 39 with 5:07 to play. The Roughriders took advantage of the good field position when Taylor hit Tyler Menker over the middle for a 20-yard TD strike two plays later for a quick 7-0 lead.

Late in the second quarter, St. Marys threatened again after driving the ball to the Defiance 3-yard line. But ,n fourth down with less than 40 seconds to play in the half, a Taylor pass to Cody Martin was too long, keeping the score 7-0 at the half.

The Bulldogs, however, couldn't capitalize after getting the ball to start the second half, seeing their first drive stall at the St. Marys 40. After stopping the Roughriders, another fumble proved costly as Defiance quarterback Jordan Gonzales couldn't handle the snap and Adam Lininger of St. Marys recovered at the DHS 39.

Just six plays later, Jeremy Frey hauled in a Taylor screen pass and fought his way into the end zone from 10 yards out to give the visitors a 14-0 lead.

"Defiance had 11 guys stacked within six yards of the ball so they were kind of forcing our hand to throw the football, we didn't have much of an option," said Frye. "We probably should have done it a little bit earlier and under normal circumstances we wouldn't have been so reserved about it.

"With how wet it was tonight, I wasn't sure how well we'd be able to execute our passing game, so that made us a little hesitant early on in the game," added Frye.

Late in the third quarter the Bulldogs drove to St. Marys 36, only to see that drive end when a Gonzales pass intended for Alex Nofziger was intercepted by Cory Dammeyer inside the Roughrider 10. Dammeyer returned it all the way to the St. Marys' 44, giving the vistors good field position again.

Taylor, who finished the game 8-of-14 passing for 125 yards, then capped a 6-play scoring drive by throwing a perfect 15-yard, fade-route pass into the end zone to teammate Paul Lauth, who out-fought Nofziger for the ball on the way to the ground for the TD.

With 11:49 to play in the game, St. Marys led, 20-0.

"When you turn the ball over three times and they score three times ... that says it all to me," said Buti. "But, if you're going to be a defense like you talk about, then you go in and stop them ... but we didn't do that. I said before the game, until you stop St. Marys, don't talk about our defense being good. A great defense would have gone in there and stopped them after those sudden changes. We didn't do it."

Defiance's lone score of the game came on a razzle-dazzle play. Gonzales took the snap and pitched to running back Travis Spitnale, who flipped the ball to wideout Craig Gutman on a reverse. Gutman, however, put on the brakes and threw a strike down the field to Nofziger who turned it into a 70-yard touchdown reception and a 20-6 deficit.

That was as close as Defiance could get, however, as St. Marys left Fred J. Brown Stadium unbeaten and still in control of its own destiny in the WBL and in the playoff hunt.

"After this win tonight, it means we better be ready for next week," said Frye.

Concluded Buti: "I told the kids before the game, it's not a make-or-break game for us, because I think if we would have won that would have sent a shock through the rest of the league. Now we're 3-1, we go on from here and all we can do is play better next week."

Defiance is at Van Wert on Friday, while St. Marys hosts Wapakoneta.

ST. MARYS DEFIANCE
First Downs 9 8
Rushing Yards 41-102 31-68
Passing Yards 125 171
Total Offense 227 239
Passes Attempted 14 26
Passes Completed 8 10
Had Intercepted 0 1
Fumbles 1 3
Fumbles Lost 0 2
Yards Penalized 3-30 2-15

St. Marys 7 0 7 6 - 20
Defiance 0 0 0 6 - 6

St. Marys - Menker 20-yard pass from Taylor (Adkins kick).
St. Marys - Frey 10-yard pass from Taylor (Adkins kick).
St. Marys - Lauth 15-yard pass from Taylor (Kick failed).
Defiance - Nofziger 70-yard pass from Gutman (Kick failed).

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: St. Marys - Frey 20-57; Homan 13-51; Martin 1-2; Taylor 7-(-8). Defiance - Spitnale 13-51; Perez 4-10; Gonzales 14-7.
PASSING: St. Marys - Taylor 8-14-0-125. Defiance - Gonzales 9-25-1-111; Gutman 1-1-0-70.
RECEIVING: St. Marys - Martin 3-39; Dammeyer 1-33; Menker 1-20; Lauth 1-15; Frey 1-10; Watkins 1-8. Defiance - Nofziger 5-117; Gutman 4-62.