The Roughriders (5-3, 5-2 in the Western Buckeye League) couldn’t convert on first and goal  from nine yards out in the final seconds in a 14-7 Friday night loss to Shawnee.
The loss leaves St. Marys  in second in the WBL and cripples the Riders’ playoff hopes. Shawnee remains atop the WBL with the win (6-2, 6-1 in the WBL.
On fourth and goal from just outside the five yard line, St. Marys quarterback Derek Dunlap was sacked by Shawnee’s Tyler Rhoades to all but end the game. It was Rhoades’ eleventh sack of the season and helped give the Indians their first win at St. Marys since 1966.
“Tyler broke free, like he does a lot of times,” Shawnee coach Dick West said. “When teams are passing, he’s tough. We were trying to figure out where they were going to put Koby, because we thought he was going to get the ball. He was blocking. It shocked us.  We were telling the kids to watch him, because we thought they’d go to him.”
Frye thinks the play would have worked aside from Rhoades’ sack.
“What we had designed would have scored a touchdown, but we couldn’t get the ball to him,” St. Marys coach Doug Frye said.”We had a stop called to the left — a little stop route across the goal line which was open, it just didn’t happen.”
On a night the Roughriders honored the late, great coach Skip Baughman, West thought it apropos that he —a protege — won on the field named after Baughman.
“I coached here for Coach Baughman and it’s a big day with him getting inducted into the hall of fame,” West said. “I really feel good about winning here.”
On the last set of four plays, Dunlap tried to connect with Brad Frazier on fade routes twice, Rammel carried for four yards and then Dunlap was sacked on fourth down.
Koby Frye engergized the Riders with his special teams play on an 87-kickoff return that set up a touchdown plunge two plays later that made it 7-6 Riders.
Frye went over 1000 yards for the season with a 131-yard rushing night on 27 carries along with the long kick-off run.
Less than three minutes later, special teams would deal Frye a cruel counterpunch.
Frye muffed a punt he was running up on near his own 25-yard line after Shawnee went three-and-out. The Indians recovered the ball at the 30-yard line and eight plays later scored a Brandon Stephenson touchdown to take the lead.
“I said early in the week...that turnovers would be the difference in this game,” Frye said. “Those two turnovers were huge in tonight’s ball game.”
St. Marys lost a fumble in Shawnee territory in the first half.
Stephenson, the  WBL’s leading rusher, had 102 yards and a pair of touchdowns  on 25 carries, but Frye thought his team did a nice job on the stout Stephenson.
“I thought we did a pretty decent job defensively,” Frye said.
Frye hammered home the point that it was the key moments in the game where the Indians shined and the Riders didn’t.
“I thought when there were crucial plays to be made, they out executed us,” Frye said. “When you get in a tight game like this when you get into third and fours and third and fives, you’ve got to convert those.That was the difference tonight.”
The Indians played musical chairs with Stephenson, putting him in the slot, on the wing and the dot in the I-formation — moves that shifted the focus of the defense and allowed the Indian fullbacks to find creases.
“We try to move him around and put him in different spots,” West said. “We’ve got an assortment of plays and when he is on the wing it opens things up for our fullbacks.”
Rhoades carried 10 times  for 42 yards from his fullback spot.
Stephenson scored the go-ahead run and reached out for the two-point conversion to make it 14-7.
St. Marys had a pair of drives that ended late in halves. Kenny Bruce’s 37-yard field goal attempt slipped no good to the right and the teams went to halftime deadlocked 0-0.
“In both situations we drove the ball at inopportune times,” Frye said. “It took us out of our game plan both times. We couldn’t really punch it in running the ball either time because of the clock situation.”
St. Marys’ final drive to end the game started with 3:09 left on the clock, and the Riders moved the ball down the field steadily with three timeouts in the pocket and Frye and Bruce finding room to roam.
A 17-yard run off the right side got St. Marys down to the 35 yardline of Shawnee. Bruce slipped to the 10-yard line on a 13-yard run with around a minute left, setting up the final four plays.
Shawnee was landed a big blow when quarterback Josh Miller was knocked out of the game with a concussion. In stepped junior Ben Trowbridge.
“It took away any chance of throwing the ball,” West said. “I thought our offensive line stepped up to the challenge and actually blocked harder. We found some holes and the backs were running hard, because we knew we had to cover for Josh being out of the line up.”
Miller was looked at by the staff after West said the junior signal caller “didn’t even know where he was.”
Shawnee struck first in the game on an opening drive of the second half. The Indians put together a 13-play, 72-yard drive that chewed up yardage and clock.
The Indians muffed the extra point, leaving the score 6-0.
“It looked like a good snap and our holder (Josh Gillis) thought it was a little low,” West said. “He called out fire and only one guy heard him.”
St. Marys entered the game ninth in Div. III’s Region 10 in computer points, but a loss will drop the Riders and push them into second place in the Western Buckeye League.
St. Marys worked some play-action into the offense in the second half, but never found any real success. Dunlap was 3-for-8 for 21 yards, including a hook and ladder pass for 12 yards on the final drive.
“We finished the first half down there without a score and we finished the game down there without a score,” Frye said.

SHAWNEE                                      14
ST. MARYS                                      7
                       
Shawnee              0     0    6    8 – 14
New Bremen        0     0    7    0 –   7
                         
 SCORING SUMMARY
                        Third Quarter
SHAW – Brandon Stephenson 5-yard run, (PAT no good), 6:29, SHAW 6-0.
SM – Koby Frye 4-yard run, (Kenny Bruce kick good), 5:36, SM 7-6.
                       Fourth Quarter
SH AW – Stephenson  2-yard run,  (Stephenson 2-pt conversion run), 11:56, SHAW 14-7.
 

TEAM STATS
                                     SM               SHAW
First Downs                  15                    12
Rushes                        49-249         37-184
Passing yards                21                    36
Comp-Attempts           3-8                    3-8
Intercepted by                 0                      0
Fumbles-lost                 2-2                  1-0
Penalties-yards            2-20                6-30
        

    INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING (rushing-yards) – SM – Frye 27-131, Bruce 16-73, Dunlap 4- (-4), Rammel 2-8. SHAW– Stephenson 25-102, Rhoades 10-42, Biss 2-18.,
PASSING (comp-att.-int.-yards) – SM – Dunlap 3-8-0-21. SHAW – Miller 3-8-0-36.

MISSED FIELD GOALS – Kenny Bruce, 37-yard attempt, 0:26 left in second quarter.