Riders, Hinkle rough up Bulldogs.
Aiden Hinkle runs for 4 touchdowns, 223 yards in Riders’ win over Bulldogs
“Finally!” Roughriders coach Doug Frye happily yelled when asked about the offense’s performance in
Friday’s regular-season finale. “We have been searching to bring it together for one night and things started to click together tonight.”
And no better team to get the offense clicking for the first time this year than against that team across the lake.
Aiden Hinkle’s career-high four rushing touchdowns powered St. Marys’ offense in its best game of the season while the defense stymied Celina’s twoman running attack as the team gears up for the playoffs after a 49- 6 rout of the Bulldogs to close out the regular season on Friday at Grand Lake Health System Field. “We’ve had a couple of very productive weeks of practice; we just haven’t been able to carry that into gameday,” Frye added.
“We have had a year where we have had several players dinged and they have been key kids throughout the year and our kids have shown great resilience to continue to work and continue to get better.” Hinkle accounted for four of the Roughriders’ first five touchdowns — including the first two on TD runs of 7 and 3 yards. Celina opened the game with a three-and- out, giving the ball to the sophomore as he accounted for 34 of the Riders’ 55-yard scoring drive — the team’s first opening- possession score of the season. Following another Bulldogs’ three-and-out, Hinkle steamrolled his way to 36 yards on six carries — of the team’s 53 yards — culminated by his 3-yard dive for an early 14- 0 lead just 8:44 into the game.
Meanwhile, the defense flexed its muscles. Frye said he was concerned coming into the game because Celina has been in every game this season and quarterback Cooper Jones and running back Jaxson Silliman are one of the better sets of players in the league.
“But I thought that our kids took it to another level tonight and hopefully they can maintain that,” the coach added.
Celina endured three consecutive three-and-outs to open the game and Jones
was intercepted on the fourth offensive as the Bulldogs did not record their first first down until the 7:12 mark of the second quarter. By then, Hinkle had outgained the Bulldogs by himself with 144 yards on 18 carries. Hinkle also mustered 39 of the Roughriders’ 76-yard drive to go up three scores when Gavin Reineke snuck the ball in from four yards out and the fullback’s third touchdown came on a 29-yard run to the right side of the field nearly untouched to push St. Marys’ lead to 28-0 with 7:48 remaining in the first half.
At that point, Celina had just 9 yards of total offense and finished with 129 yards, 2-of-12 on third downs and six punts on Friday.
“I didn’t think coming into the ball game but you could see the sparks in some moments in the last couple of weeks but I think that it all clicked together tonight a lot better,” Frye said when asked if Celina’s offense played into his team’s strength. “I thought we played with a spirit and an emotion I have not seen out of our kids yet this year. I mean, I have seen moments of it, but I thought we maintained that throughout the ballgame.”
The Roughriders activated the running clock 58 seconds into the third quarter as Hinkle’s two rushes amounted to 27 yards and Ethan Wedding’s tough 34-yard run did the rest for the senior’s first touchdown since Week 2 against Wapakoneta.
Following Celina’s fifth punt of the game, Hinkle notched his fourth TD.
Accumulating 12 yards on three carries, Hinkle ended his night with an exclamation point with a 21-yard run untouched up the middle for a 42-0 lead with 4:13 remaining in the third quarter.
Hinkle finished the night with 223 yards on 27 carries for an 8.3yard average and four touchdowns.
“We had a great surge upfront on the offensive line,” Frye explained. “And taking nothing away from what he did, our line surging off [the ball] and we have been trying to work on that the entire season so we were getting a nice push upfront.
“I thought [Hunter] Fraley did a nice job, I thought Hinkle did a nice job, I thought all of our running backs did a good job and our quarterback did a nice job of engineering things.”
Fraley ended the Roughriders’ scoring by getting into the endzone for the first time this season with a 2-yard dive with 3:46 left in the game.
St. Marys finished the night with a seasonbests in first downs with 24, total yards with 448 — with a season-best 440 coming on the ground — and 11-of-13 on third downs.
“It’s better than the alternative,” Frye said about the team’s performance heading into the playoffs. “It was a nice evening and a lot of kids contributed and that was exceptional.
We started to get some leadership stepping forward.
“If you look at this season and where we’re at both those losses [a combined 13 points to Ottawa-Glandorf and Van Wert] were close losses down to the wire and with addition to the COVID situation, we’ve been dealing with a lot of little injuries to key kids this year.”
The 49 points are not only a season-high for the Riders but it is the most points scored by a St. Marys team against Celina since the 1979 squad put up 51 points in a 51-23 victory.
“You’ve got to give our seniors credit tonight,” Frye commented. “The seniors on that defensive side — I saw a play by Trace Mabry before the half where he pursued across the field on Cooper Jones’ cutback to make the tackle.
“As a senior in the middle of our defense along with Hunter Fultz, I thought running-wise, we didn’t give them a whole lot.
There were a few sparks here and there but we shut down the running game and that was probably the most effective thing we did defensively.”
The Roughriders will now gear up for the postseason as they host Greenville (0-6) in the first round next week.