Derek Freewalt attempts to block a kick on Friday night in St. Marys' 28-13 win over Bath. 

By BRIAN SMITH

Sports Editor

LIMA — The St. Marys sideline was full of third base coaches, winding their arms and screaming as defensive end Paul Lauth scooped up a fumble and went 50 yards untouched for a touchdown late in the fourth quarter on Friday night to seal a Western Buckeye League opening win.

Six-foot-three, 200-pound defensive ends aren’t supposed to be that fast.

“Paul Lauth has some wheels,” St. Marys head coach Doug Frye said. “We’re well aware of the speed he has.”

One week after the Roughrider offense picked up the defense, the defense picked up the offense with a stand deep inside its own territory and then forced a turnover-turned-touchdown in the final seven minutes of the game.

Josh Zimmerman stalked Bath quarterback Cameron Garver from behind to swat the ball out of his hand, setting up Lauth’s fumble-rumble into the endzone to cap a fourth quarter filled with big plays by the Rider defense in a 28-13 win over Bath.

“We played at a different level of intensity at that point of the game,” St. Marys coach Doug Frye said. “That’s the intensity we need to play all four quarters with, because I think we can be a very good defense if we do that. We played at a different level there and that helped immensely.”

Bath head coach Todd Clark credited the St. Marys coaching staff for finding ways to stuff the Wildcats’ potent rushing attack in the second half and force quarterback Cameron Garver to beat them.

“St. Marys keyed our sweep very nicely. They made some adjustments at half time and the toss that we had early on they were shutting down,” Clark said. “ I was pleased that when we had to open up the passing game, minus some times where we took sacks, we were able to move the ball in the air.”

While Garver went 10-for17 through the air for 128 yards, it was a far cry from the offense that the Wildcats were looking for on Friday night.

St. Marys forced the Bath offense into a pass-first operation by shutting down Bath’s big duo of Gavin Painter and Aaron Smith. The two both went over 100 yards the week before, but Bath averaged just 2.25 yards per carry on Friday night. Smith only had 43 yards on 17 carries. Painter was held to 20 yards on 10 carries.

St. Marys picked up the win even without its offense picking up a first down in the fourth quarter and after the St. Marys offense fumbled the ball inside its own 20-yard line with 7:20 left in the game.
“

A week ago our offense dominated the game and this week I thought our defense stepped up when they needed to,” Frye said.

Bath drove the ball down to the Rider five after a pass interference call. The Bath drive was halted and sent backwards by the St. Marys defense. Aaron Smith was halted for -2 yards. Then the Roughriders swarmed Colin Bishop on an end around for a seven yard loss. On fourth and goal from the four yard line, Bath’s Garver scrambled down the right sideline, only to be met by a swarm of Roughrider defenders who knocked him out of bounds at the two-yard line to turn the back over on downs.

The Rider defense had one big last stand left in it after St. Marys could not get a first down deep in its own territory.

Lauth sacked Garver for a seven-yard loss on first down before the big sack and fumble recovery for a touchdown two players later.

“I’m very proud of our team,” St. Marys head coach Doug Frye said. “I thought there were a lot of adverse situations for us to face. I’ve been around a long time, but we might be going through more adversity with this team than any one I’ve been around. We fumbled down here in our own end and we had some calls that didn’t go our way. I’m proud of the way our kids handled it.”

St. Marys’ offense wasn’t quite as efficient as it was a week ago when it churned out over 300 yards on the ground, but it put enough drives together to score 21 offensive points in the first three quarters, with two Jake Taylor sneaks for paydirt and an Aaron Homan run for a touchdown.

“They are a powerful offensive team and we held them to 21 points,” Bath coach Todd Clark said. “Unfortunately, they were busting the counters on us. We started flying to the sweeps and they ran the counter. That’s what’s tough about defending the wing-t.”

The Riders went 66 yards on 10 plays and took up 7:50 on the clock to take a first quarter 6-0 lead. Runs of 19 and 14 yards by leading rusher Aaron Homan set up a Homan touchdown plunge from four yards out.
Homan finished the game with 66 yards on 10 carries.

After Bath took a brief 7-6 lead in the second quarter on an Aaron Smith seven-yard rushing touchdown following a Jake Taylor interception, St. Marys went on an eight-play march that took less than three minutes.

A 15-yard run by Taylor and a 17-yard run by Homan got the Roughriders deep into Bath territory to set up a Taylor keeper from two yards out. Then the Rider quarterback found Cody Martin from eight yards out on the two-point conversion following a procedure penalty.
St. Marys led 14-7.

The Riders tacked on a touchdown in the third quarter on a 12-play drive, finished off by a Taylor sneak.
Garver’s 28-yard touchdown strike to Matt Hefner drew the Wildcats to within one point, but an extra point attempt clanged off the goalpost to keep the Riders in the lead 14-13 in the third quarter.

St. Marys has won nine straight match-ups between the teams. The last time Bath beat St. Marys was in 1999 — also the year of the last Bath WBL title.

    1    2    3    4     F
St. Marys    6    8    7    7    28
Bath    0    7    6    0    13

First Quarter
SM — Aaron Homan 4-yard TD run, P.A.T. no good, SM 6-0, 4:05 (11-play, 66-yard drive).
Second Quarter
B — Aaron Smith 7-yard TD run, P.A.T. good, B 7-6, 11:15 (11-play, 75-yard drive).
SM — Jake Taylor 2-yard TD run, 2-point conversion from Taylor to Martin good, SM 14-7, 1:31 (8-play, 62-yard drive).
Third Quarter
B — Cameron Garver to Matt Hefner 28-yard TD pass, P.A.T. no good, SM 14-13, 8:04 (9-play, 71-yard drive).
SM — Jake Taylor 1-yard TD run, P.A.T. good, SM 21-13, 2:59. (12-play, 76-yard drive).
Fourth Quarter
SM — Paul Lauth 50-yard fumble recovery for a TD, P.A.T good, SM 28-13, 1:35 (1-play, 50-yards).
       
                        SM               B
First Downs        13              14
Total Yards        291            244
Rushing         44-222          44-99
Yards per rush    5.0            2.25
Passing            3-5-69    11-19-145
Turnovers          2              1

Rushing — SM - Aaron Homan 10-66, Jeremy Frey 7-46, Jake Taylor 9-44, Dylan Dietz 9-34, Dan Roberts 4-19, Cody Martin 5-13. B - Aaron Smith 17-43, Cody Routson 2-27, Gavin Painter 11-20, Colin Bishop 4-8, Cameron Garver 8-3, Zach Collins 1-3, Aaaron Rumbaugh 1- -4.

Passing — SM - Jake Taylor 3-5-69 yards, INT. B - Cameron Garver 10-18-128, 1 TD, Aaron Rumbaugh 1-1-18.

Receiving — SM - Matt Watkins 1-44, Aaron Homan 1-17, Cody Martin 1-8. B — Scott Goedde 3-32, Matt Hefner 3-57, Colin Bishop 1-9, Eliot Good 2-26.

Sacks — SM - Paul Lauth, Josh Zimmerman.

Fumble recovery — SM - Paul Lauth (50-yard return for TD).