Van Wert tops Roughriders in back-and-forth affair
VAN WERT — Owen Treece had his way with St. Marys on Friday.
A week after recording just three incompletions, 294 passing yards and four total touchdowns, the Van Wert senior saved an encore for a home audience at the expense of the Roughriders’ defense with a 342yard night and five touchdowns to hand St. Marys a 34-28 defeat at Eggress Stadium.
“That is the worst coverage I have seen in our secondary,” Roughriders coach Doug Frye said emphatically. “We didn’t cover a soul back. Give Van Wert credit for winning the game but we pretty much said, ‘go ahead and toss it over our head and beat us.’
“We had guys 15 yards open and that is on our shoulders as coaches. It was like we gift wrapped it to them and told them to throw it over our heads.”
All but one of Treece’s touchdown passes were by the catch-and-run variety and receiver Dru Johnson was the beneficiary on all but one of those passing touchdowns — racking up 240 receiving yards on six catches for a 40-yard average per reception.
On the offensive end, the Roughriders scored a season-high 28 points, but endured two costly turnovers deep in Van Wert territory. Those turnovers resulted in a Cougars’ touchdown and a failed chance to tie at the game before the end of the first half. After four games, the Riders have fumbled eight times, losing four.
“That has been typical of the whole season,” Frye stated. “You don’t win football games by giving up easy touchdowns or turning the ball over. Either I’ve got to get that corrected or we are going to have to figure it out some way else because I am not getting guys to buy in enough to get that corrected at this point.
“It is the simple fact that I’m watching guys run into the endzone and there is nobody within 20 yards in the secondary and I’m seeing fumbles where guys are reaching for balls, we are not finishing on offense and that is typical coachability and effort right there.”
Despite all of that, St. Marys still had a chance to tie or win the game late.
The Roughriders began their final offensive drive at their 24yard line with 2:11 remaining trailing 3428.
Brandon Bowers made a clutch catch along the sideline on third down and Gavin Reineke hit Ethan Wedding on a slate on fourth down to keep the drive alive, but the Riders’ best opportunity to take the lead occurred when Braeden Hemmelgarn was the motion man in shotgun, swept across the line and was left wide open. The junior, however, lost his footing just outside the 30-yard
MORRAL — Waynesfield-goshen rallied for a 20-16 victory over Ridgedale on Friday in Northwest Central Conference football action.
The Tigers trailed 16-0 before coming back to get the win. They are now 4-0 on the season.
After a scoreless opening quarter, the Rockets scored on a 14-yard pass, and added a two-point conversion for an 8-0 lead with three minutes elapsed in the second.
line as the ball fell incomplete.
“He was wide open and he probably scores on that play but ifs, buts, could have, should have and would have are just plays that’s got to be made,” Frye said. “The ball wasn’t thrown real well and we need a better throw than that. At some point you can draw it up and you can work out it but you’ve got to execute when it comes time to do it.”
The ballgame was sealed plays later on fourth down at the 35yard line when the snap hit Ethan Wedding, who was the motion man sweeping to his right as Devin Shannon was tackled after landing on the ball.
“I liked our spirit to continue to fight back,” the coach added.
After a punt on Van Wert’s opening drive of the game and St. Marys’ turnover on downs on its first drive, Hemmelgarn — returning after serving a two-game suspension following an ejection Week 1 against Bath — picked off Treece on the Cougars’ ensuing possession, but St. Marys fumbled on the next play and three plays later, Treece got touchdown pass No. 1 on a 88-yard catch-and-run gain on a post route from Johnson.
St. Marys responded on its next possession when Reineke took a five-step drop, darted a pass to Hemmelgarn, who then broke a tackle, followed by three more as he charged 42 yards for the score.
Treece gave the Cougars the lead 14-7 when he found Johnson on a post route, but the Roughriders responded again when Aiden Hinkle bullied his way for a 4-yard TD run. That score was setup by Hemmelgarn’s 38yard outside run to the strong side and down the sideline.
Treece gave the Cougars the lead again when he rushed up field and found a streaking Ian Cowan, who took a shallow crossing route and turned upfield — beating Tanner Howell by five yards for the 21-14 score.
St. Marys had an opportunity to tie the game going into the half with 1:03 but instead fumbled at the 15-yard line. Van Wert was content with its seven-point lead by running out the clock to end the half.
Van Wert threatened to go up two scores in the third quarter, but Hemmelgarn picked off Treece when Treece’s pass was too far outside for his receiver, who broke inside along the sideline. The junior then took the ball back 86 yards to tie the game with 4:21 left in the quarter.
The athletic junior finished the night with a 66-yard touchdown reception, 59 rushing yards on six carries and his picksix. He was also responsible, however, for two of the long Van Wert touchdown passes.
“I thought there were some really good effort in a lot of areas, he played hard and he did a lot of little things well,” Frye said. “His athleticism showed tonight, but there is a lot of room for improvement.”
But Treece struck again on the Cougars’ next drive when he found Johnson on a third post route — this one for 39 yards — with 19 seconds left to lead 28-21.
St. Marys, like it had done all night, responded with an 11play, 57-yard drive that culminated with Hinkle’s second rushing TD of the night, a 1-yard dive into the endzone.
Twenty seconds later, however, Johnson split between Hemmelgarn and Dylan Trogdlon for a 75-yard run-and-catch touchdown for Treece’s fifth TD pass. The extra point, however, was blocked as St. Marys made its final march that fell short.
In the last two games, the Roughriders secondary surrendered 564 passing yards and nine touchdowns against Ottawa-glandorf’s Jacob Balbaugh and Treece, but the Roughriders will hope to turn those numbers around next week when they travel to Shawnee Township to play the Indians — who have the worst statistical offense in the WBL.
“Unless we get better, there isn’t another winnable game,” Frye stated. “Right now, we have to take care of not beating ourselves. “From a coach’s and a player’s standpoint, none of us are doing a very good job.”