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FREMONT The last name Brickner is one Flyer football players, coaches and fans will never be able to forget. In a fourth straight meeting with the Hopewell-Loudon Chieftains, the first three that saw various players with the last name Brickner haunt the Flyers, it was more of the same Friday night at Don Paul Stadium at Harmon Field in Fremont in a 42-21 Chieftains win, the third in the past four years between the two teams. St. Paul finishes the year with a 12-1 mark overall while Hopewell improved to 13-0 and will play Malvern for the right to advance to the Division VI state championship game. On this night, it was Andrew Brickner catching three touchdown passes and returning an interception 75 yards while catching five passes for 65 yards and Matt Brickner added five catches for 81 yards as quarterback Tyler Brown had his way with the Flyer defense to the tune of 20 of 29 passing for 248 yards and both touchdowns to Brickner. The Flyers found themselves in a eerily familiar situation Friday with the Chieftains like the year prior. In the 26-14 loss in 2007, St. Paul turned it over inside the HL 10 just before halftime and had a touchdown called back that took points off the board. In Friday night's game, the Flyers saw drives in the second quarter result in a turnover on downs at the HL 18 and 10-yard lines. Also giving the Flyer defense throughout the night was the Chieftains converting 6 of 8 third downs, including a 4-yard touchdown pass to Brickner that gave HL the lead for good on a third-and-goal from the 4 with 31 seconds left in the half to make it 14-7. "We couldn't finish our drives in the first half and we couldn't stop them," St. Paul head coach John Livengood said. "And it seemed like we had them in a situation where it seemed like maybe we'd be able to stop them on third down, they made a play and we didn't." The Flyers marched down the field at will on the opening drive of the game, but needed a 9-yard run by quarterback Eric Schwieterman on fourth down at the Hopewell 24 that just did get the nose of the football past the marker for a new set of downs. Three plays later, he found Daniel Tracht, over the middle, who then made a nice move to cut back to his left and up the sidelines untouched for a 16-yard touchdown pass at the 7:43 mark of the opening quarter for a 7-0 lead. The Chieftains then responded with a methodical drive that took nearly five minutes off the clock as Brickner scored on a three-yard run to tie the game at 7-7, which led to the Flyers back-to-back turnover on downs inside the HL 20. The big blow then came when HL proceeded to go 90 yards for the score after the turnover on downs at the 10, with Brickner's third and goal catch capping it off. "It's kind of the tale of the game there," Livengood said. "We couldn't finish our drives and their score before the half was big. Our kids kept their composure, we talked about getting a stop to start the second half, but unfortunately they came out and made some plays again and went up two scores...from there it was a real tough battle." That score was a 17-yard pass to Brickner to open the third quarter scoring at the 8:44 mark and on the Chieftains ensuing drive Aaron Kapelka scored on a 1-yard run with six seconds left in the third to pull away with a 28-7 lead entering the fourth quarter. That drive was set up when the Flyers used five minutes of clock, only to again turn the ball over on downs, this time at the Chieftians 24. St. Paul is now 2-12 all-time in the playoffs when trailing through three quarters, as well as 6-11 when trailing at halftime. There appeared to be a ray of hope early in the fourth quarter as the Flyers quickly covered 96 yards in five plays thanks to a 21 and 44 yard run by Matt Wilde, who then capped the drive off with a 5-yard run for his 31st touchdown of the season that made the deficit 28-14 with 9:17 left. As was the general story throughout the night, the Chieftains drove down the field quickly for another touchdown on a 14-yard run by Kapelka to make it 35-14.
St. Paul then faced a fourth-and-8 from the
Hopewell-Loudon 37 and Schwietermans pass was picked off on a great play by
Brickner, who raced 75 yards for the back-breaking score. That made it 42-14
and St. Paul got a late touchdown on a 12-yard run by Adam Pugh to cut the
margin in half and close out the scoring. |
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