Photographs by Andrews PhotographyDATELINE SEPTEMBER 12 - SKIP BAUGHMAN STADIUM - HOME of the ROUGHRIDERS
After a grueling week of practices beginning with full pads bright and early last Saturday morn, the Jekyl and Hyde Riders more reassuringly resembled the wonderful Dr. Jekyl throughout most of tonight's sacrifice. For sacrifice it was, with the visiting Shawnee Indians and their meager constituency playing the role of vestal virgin with persuasion. They never had a chance.
 |
On yet another gorgeous evening for the sport of giants, the St. Marys Roughriders rebounded from last week's putrid showing and fertilized the lush turf of Skip Baughman field with the comminuted remains of the visiting Shawnee Indians, 49 points to a scant half-dozen. St. Marys' Doug Burke thundered the opening kickoff to the goal line (as he routinely does), and Shawnee embarked upon its most impressive drive of the game, gaining a first down and moving the ball out to the 39. Then Rider Jason Homan stepped up for a pick and ran it back to the 36. A few plays later QB Rick Haines sneaked into the promised land, Kurt Kill drilled the pill for the extra, and, with a little over four minutes expired, the game was over.
 |
The home team's second series was the de riguer classic Roughrider meatgrinder: a ten-play 58-yard display of irresistable force that met no immovable object which ran out the quarter and ate into the second until Jason Clark scored from the five, Kill extra, 14-zip. In desperation, Shawnee attempted a fake punt on their next possession which, need I say? was stuffed. As a change of pace, Haines threw a 30-yard pass to Clark for a TD to round out the scoring for the half (Kill extra), 21-naught.
 |
Perhaps hearing of the carnage at Sidney, Shawnee decided not to bring a band, and the St. Marys All Brass Band provided all the entertainment needed to fill the stands. In fact, some of the faithful were witnessed filing out of the hallowed pile after the halftime show, since in fact the game was over at that point.
As if to keep the fans in their seats, the Rider offense began the second half masking as the hideous Mr. Hyde, fumbling the first play of the third quarter away and, after the D regained them the pig, stalling out on penalties in the next series. The punt snap sailed six feet or so over punter John Thistlethwaite's head and ended up belonging to the Indians at the seven, conjuring up a heavy dose of deja vu in the season-ticket holders. Sure enough, the otherwise luckless Shawnee squad managed to push it across from that proximity for their allotment of six. The extra point attempt was rejected back to the twenty yard line by a somewhat pissed special team, who obviously rued losing their goose-egg.
 |
But unlike the previous week, Dr. Jekyl rebounded, and the O got back on track, with Clark busting loose on a 36-yard run for a TD, and screaming up from behind to supply a crucial block for Thistlethwaite's 90-yard TD sprint for the last first-string score. Andy Slone set that last big play up with a brain-fart interception at the five yard line, on a 4th-and-11 pass from the 26. Oh well. All's well that ends well, and John's 90-yarder recalled familiar runs of that length by the likes of Schlosser, Clark (Rocky), Lamb (Shawn) and Dzalamanow.
In the 4th quarter, second teamers Josh Lamb and Ken Williams added TD runs of 29 and 7 yards, respectively, and backup QB Aaron Seewer sneaked in for a 2-point conversion to conclude the tally, the last score coming with but 5.3 seconds remaining and telling all inattendance in no uncertain terms that the Riders do in fact know where the jugular is.
As long as it's Dr. Jekyl going for it...
Next Friday evening the boys roll to Kenton to compete against the Wildcats, who undoubtedly think something of themselves after out-gaining Wapak 433 yards to 45 in their 12-0 win over the hometeam Redskins.
| GAME STATS (Stolen from The Evening Leader) | ||||
| St. Marys | Shawnee | St. Marys Season | Opponents Season | |
| First Downs | 16 | 8 | 47 | 28 |
| Rushes-Yards | 48-361 | 42-95 | 167-919 | 110-163 |
| Completions / Attempts - Yards | 5/7-73 | 3/13-23 | 11/22-116 | 21/47-228 |
| Had Intercepted | 0 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| Offensive Plays | 55 | 55 | 189 | 151 |
| Total Offense | 403 | 118 | 1004 | 391 |
| Punts-Yards | 0-0 | 2-68 | 3-110 | 12-410 |
| Blocked | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Fumbles-Lost | 2-1 | 1-1 | 5-4 | 4-4 |
| Penalties - Yards | 4-55 | 2-10 | 9-95 | 5-35 |
| RIDER STATS | ||||
| Rushes | Yards | Season Rushes | Season Yards | |
| 7 Rick Haines | 2 | 2 | 22 | 25 |
| 11 Aaron Seewer | 2 | 15 | ||
| 13 John Meinerding | 2 | 8 | ||
| 21 Bobby Huttis | 3 | 12 | 13 | 79 |
| 23 Andy Slone | 5 | 46 | 21 | 105 |
| 27 Brandon Meyer | 2 | 35 | ||
| 28 John Thistlethwaite | 14 | 171 | 43 | 374 |
| 30 Ken Williams | 3 | 25 | 5 | 32 |
| 32 Jason Clark | 14 | 70 | 44 | 188 |
| 34 Josh Lamb | 5 | 35 | 11 | 59 |
| Completions / Passes - Interceptions | Yards | Season Completions / Passes - Interceptions | Season Yards | |
| 7 Rick Haines | 5/7-0 | 23 | 11/21-1 | 66 |
| Receptions | Yards | Season Receptions | Season Yards | |
| 23 Andy Slone | 1 | 21 | ||
| 28 John Thistlethwaite | 3 | 33 | 5 | 47 |
| 32 Jason Clark | 2 | 40 | 4 | 45 |
| 86 Spencer Williams | 1 | 3 | ||
| Viewing Tip: If stats table is off-center, Increase Font (under "View" in Netscape). | ||||
AROUND the WESTERN BUCKEYE LEAGUE September 12...
Celina ~ Beat Bath 28-7 ~ 3-0 ~ 2-0
Defiance ~ Beat Elida 53-0 ~ 3-0 ~ 2-0
Ottawa-Glandorf ~ Beat Van Wert 28-11 ~ 3-0 ~ 2-0
Kenton ~ Beat Wapak 12-0 ~ 2-1 ~ 1-1
St. Marys ~ Beat Shawnee 49-6 ~ 2-1 ~ 1-1
Van Wert ~ Lost to O-G 11-28 ~ 2-1 ~ 1-1
Wapakoneta ~ Lost to Kenton 0-12 ~ 1-2 ~ 1-1
Bath ~ Lost to Celina 7-28 ~ 1-2 ~ 0-2
Shawnee ~ Lost to St. Marys 6-49 ~ 1-2 ~ 0-2
Elida ~ Lost to Defiance 0-53 ~ 0-3 ~ 0-2
Other Scores
Sidney 21 - Xenia 14 (OT)
West Holmes 39 - Urbana 6
Last Week's Games <= | => Next Week's Games
 |
 |