Roughriders seek to clip Eagles’ wings
The sweaty days of August have become the chilly nights of November.
The first round of the OHSAA postseason is in the books, and St. Marys is among the teams still pursuing a championship.
The Roughriders galloped out the gate last week, and blazed their way to a 49-13 win over Franklin.
St. Marys will get to spend one more Friday night at Grand Lake Health System Field, due to #13 seed Chaminade-Julienne knocking off Ross 38-17.
As the higher seed, the Roughriders get the home field advantage — cowbells and all.
Senior Braeden Hemmelgarn had 143 yards and two touchdowns last week, all in the first half. The scoring runs were 80 yards (on the first game’s first snap) and then 39 yards. He also hauled in a 20-yard pass from quarterback Gavin Reineke for a hat trick of sorts.
Junior Aiden Hinkle had 13 carries for 75 yards, with a four-yard touchdown. Senior Ross Henschen toted the ball nine times and gained 79 yards.
St. Marys racked up 386 rushing yards, while holding Franklin to 74 on the ground, and just one completion for five yards.
The defense did not allow a third-down conversion, while the Riders offense moved the ball on six out of the eight chances.
Coach Bo Frye said that the one word that best describes Chaminade-Julienne is “athletic,”
C-J is a private school located in Dayton. The Eagles complete in the Greater Catholic League, with five other schools — Badin, McNicholas, Alter, Fenwick and Carroll.
The Eagles opened the season with a 3820 win over Troy. They then lost to Cincinnati Moeller 42-28 and Fairmont 24-7.
After two weeks off, they shut out Fenwick 32-0. They began October with a 63-7 rout of Carroll. They then lost three in a row, falling to Badin (45-28), McNicholas (31-30 in overtime) and Alter (55-28) to finish the regular season at 3-5 overall and 2-3 in league play.
Senior quarterback Luke Chandler (6-1, 192 pounds) is the leading passer in the GCL, with 1,698 yards. The top receivers are senior Kenyon Owens (6-0, 193) with 651 yards and junior Jonathan Peltier (6-2, 178) with 391.
Leading rushers are junior Josiah Payne (58, 188) with 73 carries for 517 yards and senior Walter Sledge (5-8, 186), who has 65 rushes for 363 yards. Payne has two touchdowns and Sledge has seven.
Sophomore Amare Lattimore (5-8, 162) has 44 carries for 325 yards, and Chandler has gained 188 yards on 62 carries.
“They have very good (skill players),” said Frye. “They have scored points on everyone. They are very well coached.”
He added that the Eagles “played an extremely tough schedule” and that the record doesn’t reflect the level of talent.
Frye said that they are most comparable to Van Wert, with a spread offense and the preference to throw the ball quickly.
The defensive leader for the Eagles is junior lineman Nesta Owens (6-1, 220), who has 89 tackles (37 solo) in the team’s nine games. He has seven sacks and has recovered two fumbles.
Freshman linebacker Keymaurie Boykin (510, 192) has 65 tackles and senior linebacker Carson Swisher (5-11, 210) has 60 to his credit.
The Roughriders have not lost at home this season, with wins over Defiance (56-0), Van Wert (21-14), Shawnee (25-3), Elida (42-7), and Bath (28-0), plus Franklin.
On the road, they edged London (10-7), lost to Wapakoneta (107) and Ottawa-Glandorf (35-16), and routed Kenton (48-7) and Celina (35-0).
The Western Buckeye League had a good performance in the opening round, going 5-1.
Wapakoneta shut out Dunbar 30-0 and Shawnee winning 28-0 over Hughes in Region 12.
In Region 14 of Division IV, Van Wert defeated Rossford 46-0. In Division V, OttawaGlandorf topped Chippewa 41-6. The one team to lose was Bath, which fell to LibertyBenton 14-3.
The winner of the Roughriders and Eagles will advance to the regional semifinals. They will face the winner of the contest between #1 Badin and #9 Shawnee at a neutral site.
This week’s kickoff is at 7 p.m., with gates open at 5:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at the OHSAA website or by using the HomeTown Fan app. They are $10 up until 4 p.m. on Friday, and are $12 from then until game time.