By BRIAN SMITH
Sports Editor

After watching the St. Marys offense pull off quite a trick just minutes before, the Ottawa-Glandorf Titans didn’t want a tie — they wanted the whole thing.

Another Western Buckeye League title, revenge from last year’s late loss to the Riders, and a comeback to answer Jake Taylor and Aaron Homan’s 75-yard miracle.

The Titans went for two and failed after pulling to within one point of the Roughriders with 2:08 left in the game.

Ken Schriner — part Ottawa-Glandorf football coach, part riverboat gambler.

“We just said in the huddle that we had to stop them,” St. Marys linebacker Josh Zimmerman said. “This is our league championship right here.”

Ottawa-Glandorf quarterback Taylor Kuhlman sprinted right and was hit by St. Marys defensive tackle Marcus Neal in the backfield, forcing Kuhlman to float the football helplessly into the back of the endzone.

“We were prepared for that,” St. Marys head coach Doug Frye said. “In fact, I thought they might go for two the touchdown before that or fake an extra point.”

Schriner stood by his decision.

“That was the right call at the right time,” Schriner said. “St. Marys made a nice play off the edge. Give them credit. It was just a sprint out. It was man coverage and we saw exactly what we wanted, but somebody came through and the protection broke down...At that point of the game, we knew that stopping their run game is tough. You’re not sure you’re going to get that opportunity again, so we decided that was the best thing to do at that time.”

St. Marys recovered the ensuing onside kick and ran out the clock, sapping the dreams of another Titan WBL title with a 21-20 victory Friday night at Skip Baughman Stadium.

“That’s probably a good call there,” Frye said. “But you give credit to our defensive players for getting it done there. Our defense has been somewhat criticized because we thought they should be a little better at this point, but they got it done tonight.”

And with a Shawnee loss to Defiance on Friday night, the Roughriders now stand alone atop the WBL standings with a 6-0 overall mark and a 5-0 record in the league.

The Perfect Pass

St. Marys scored the game-deciding touchdown with 4:16 left.

The Roughriders earned their win with a play that took foresight and trust on the parts of both quarterback Jake Taylor and running back Aaron Homan.

Faced with a third and long deep in its own territory, St. Marys put the ball into the hands of Taylor.  Taylor found Aaron Homan on a wheel route down the right sideline with a touch pass just over the outstretched arms of the Titan defensive back, over the shoulder and into the hands of Homan. The Roughrider running back streaked down the sidelines, escaping the dives of two Titan chasers for the 75-yard touchdown, sending the crowd into a tizzy. Chaz Adkins added the extra point to give the Riders the 21-14 lead.

“I wasn’t really open, but the DB just kept backpeddling,” Homan said. “I just ran by him and Jake threw a perfect pass and I just ran.”

Taylor said the play was designed to pick up a first down, but he saw an opportunity.
“We ran a couple of routes that would get the first down,” Taylor said. “I saw Aaron running past the DB and laid it out there for him. The DB didn’t turn around and wasn’t running with Aaron, so I put it over his shoulder.”

Taylor finished the game 10-of-15 for 190 yards and a touchdown through the air. Taylor already set the season record for touchdown passes in a season in week six with the throw to Homan — his ninth of the season. That eclipses the mark of eight set by Scott Humphries (1971), Bill Fitzgerald (1985), Jack Grant (1986) and Fred Fry (1990). Unofficially, Taylor also set the single-game record for most passing yards in a game. Bobby Brown threw for 183 yards against Versailles in 1959.

“You have to give Aaron Homan and the rest of our offense a lot of credit there,” Frye said. “We called a route that tried to work underneath where we could turn it up. I’m not sure (Homan) was real open or anything. He was pretty closely covered. Jake couldn’t have thrown a more perfect football. What a catch by Aaron Homan and great protection up front. Jake had all day.”

“That’s typical St. Marys,” Schriner said. “They lull you to sleep. Their quarterback threw the ball right on the money. The receiver made a great catch. That’s two seniors making a big play for them. They’re doing a much better job this year with the pass. I’m not sure how many balls hit the ground without hitting receivers. They’re getting open. That’s a great offensive scheme they’ve got going.”

Ottawa-Glandorf got the ball at midfield after a squib kick-off went directly at upman Jeff Siefker, who rumbled to the 50-yard line to set up the game’s exciting finish.

The Titans scored their final touchdown on a 10-yard pass from Kuhlman to Brent Kuhlman on a drive that featured Taylor Kuhlman almost exclusively on the ground, scrambling in a alternate sort of single-wing attack.

“We went to a one-back set and saw some things,” Schriner said. “We decided to run the quarterback a little bit more. Taylor Kuhlman is a super athlete and we rely on him heavily.”

After a scoreless first half marked by St. Marys chewing up yardage before stalling drives inside the Titan red zone, the second half was all finishing off drives with touchdowns.

Ottawa-Glandorf drove inside the St. Marys 15-yard line with 7:00 left in the game, trailing 14-7. After a third and ten pass went off the fingertips of a Titan receiver inside the five, the Titans’ quarterback Taylor Kuhlman found Jacob Moening in the left front corner of the endzone on fourth and ten from the 12-yard line to tie the game at 14-14 with 6:21 left in the game.

St. Marys took its first lead of the game with 11:08 left in the contest. A Jake Taylor one-yard sneak gave the Riders a 14-7 lead to finish off the second consecutive touchdown drive of the second half for the Riders.

The previous drive ended with a four-yard Josh Zimmerman touchdown run. Zimmerman emerged as a big part of the Roughrider short yardage offense — a unit that helped St. Marys go 7-for-10 in third down conversions on Friday night.

“On offense you have to worry about ball security,” Zimmerman said. “I just want to get the job done and get first downs.”

“Our intent was to get more of our yardage on the perimeter,” Frye said. “They had guys who were going both ways and we thought it was not only a good gameplan, but it was good to make some of their guys run a little bit more.”

St. Marys made ample use of pitches to Jeremy Frey, Aaron Homan and Cody Martin throughout the game.

Second Half Explosion

If the O-G offense was stagnant to begin the game, the first drive  of the second was inspired. The Titans drove 63 yards in just six plays, finished off by a Taylor Kuhlman two yard plunge to give Ottawa-Glandorf a 7-0 lead with 9:40 left in the third quarter.

“We really didn’t get a feel for what our offense could do,” Schriner said. “When you get to come out and receive the kick-off, it makes a world of difference. Our kids accepted that challenge that we hit them with at halftime.”

St. Marys answered right back with a nine-play drive that spanned 72 yards and that was keyed by a big third down conversion on a pass from Taylor to Aaron Homan. A Matt Watkins catch of 26 yards put them in the red zone. Josh Zimmerman finished off the drive with a tying touchdown from four yards out with 5:19 left in the third quarter.

St. Marys had a chance to break the deadlock with less than three minutes left in the first half when it got inside the Titan five yardline on a grinding double-digit play drive. But the drive ended on fourth and goal from the five yardline, where O-G sniffed out a running back reverse to Cory Dammeyer.

The Titan defense threw Dammeyer for a five-yard loss and ran out the rest of the first half’s clock.
The game was scoreless after one quarter, as each team went on time consuming drives with their first possessions. But both drives stalled in opposing territory. St. Marys couldn’t dig out of bad field position late in the first quarter and punted on the first play of the second quarter.

“The reason this game was so close at the end was because we didn’t finish a couple of drives in the first half,” Frye said. “We let them hang with us. If we had done offensively what we should have early on, this game wouldn’t have been so tight.”

Chaz Adkins knocked through three extra points. In a season where the points after touchdowns haven’t been automatic, the kicks were the difference in the game.

“Those were big,” Frye said. “Chaz was a kid who was our snapper early in the season. He did great job. Tyler Frilling is a first-year snapper. It paid off tonight. I just wish we could figure out our kick-off game.”

“I hadn’t been at one hundred percent this year and I decided this was the game to do it in,” Adkins said, pausing for effect. “And look what happened. Watching that two-point conversion put things into perspective. I thought, ‘Wow, I really did make a difference.’”

NOTES: Along with the season record of nine touchdown passes and the single game passing yards record unofficially, Jake Taylor could close in on the career touchdown passes record of 15— which was set by Fred Fry between 1989 and 1991. Greg Ulrich threw 14 career touchdowns between 1969 and 1971. “What stands out to me about Jake Taylor is his toughness and coachability,” Frye said. “Very rarely is he going to make the same mistake twice.”

ST. MARYS   21
O-G               20

                 1    2    3     4     F
St. Marys  0    0    7    14     21
O-G           0    0    7    13     20

SCORING SUMMARY
Third Quarter
OG — Taylor Kuhlman two-yard TD run (PAT good), OG 7-0, 9:40 (six-play, 65-yard drive).

SM — Josh Zimmerman four-yard TD run (PAT good), 7-7, 5:19 (nine-play, 72-yard drive).

Fourth Quarter
SM — Jake Taylor one-yard TD run (PAT good), SM 14-7, 11:08 (11-play, 58-yard drive).

OG — Jacob Moening 12-yard TD catch from Taylor Kuhlman  (PAT good), 14-14, 6:21 (10-play, 55-yard drive).

SM — Aaron Homan 75-yard TD catch from Jake Taylor (PAT good), SM 21-14, 4:16 (6-play, 85-yard drive).

OG — Brent Kuhlman 10-yard TD catch from Taylor Kuhlman (2-point conversion failed), SM 21-20, 2:08 (six-play 63-yard drive).

                         SM                  OG
First Downs         20                  10
Rushing         47-218            26-122 

Yards per rush      4.6                4.7
Passing          10-15-190     7-15-94
Penalties         4-30                  1-5
Total Yards         378                211
Turnovers            0                     0
3rd Downs        2-for-7             7-for-10

Rushing — SM - Jeremy Frey 17-90, Aaron Homan 9-43, Cody Martin 7-45, Josh Zimmerman 10-42, Jake Taylor 7-5, Dan Roberts 1--2, Cory Dammeyer 1--5. OG - Jacob Lugo 10-53, Taylor Kuhlman 16-69.

Passing — SM - Jake Taylor 10-15-190, 1 TD, 0 INT. OG - Taylor Kuhlman 7-15-94, 2 TDs, 0 INTs.

Receiving — SM - Matt Watkins 2-37, Jeremy Frey 1-13, Aaron Homan 2-85, Derek Freewalt 1-27, Cody Martin 3-51.