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TIFFIN – Too powerful. Too much, too fast. When describing the Maria Stein Marion Local offense, those are the thoughts that come to mind after the Mercer County Flyers put up an awesome display of rushing the football on their way to a convincing 47-6 win over St. Paul in Friday night's Division VI State Semifinal contest. St. Paul ends their season at 9-5 overall, while Marion Local improved to 12-2 and will play Shadyside (12-2) next Friday in Canton for the Division VI championship trophy. Marion Local was held to just 17 yards of offense in the first quarter, but exploded for 417 yards rushing and 79 yards passing over the final three quarters on their way to 47 unanswered points. Local had 10 plays of 20 yards or more, and totaled 438 yards rushing for the game against a St. Paul defense that was allowing just 126 yards rushing per game over a 13-week stretch. St. Paul fell to 2-10 when trailing after three quarters in the postseason, and 5-9 when getting out-rushed. It is the most rushing yards allowed since Toronto ran for 370 yards in a 28-26 St. Paul win in the 1999 Divisional playoffs. "They have a great football team, and hats off to their coach and their program," St. Paul head coach John Livengood said. "There were a couple plays Otte didn't even get touched. Their line was very physical and they wore us down. They made some nice creases where there were a few times he got through untouched and was off to the races. I think at the end there when the score got out of hand, it was because they just wore us down." The Flyers came out like a house of fire to start the game, however, with the offense taking the opening kickoff and marching 66 yards on eight plays for a scoring drive that took just two minutes and 10 seconds. The key play of the drive came on a third-and-two from the St. Paul 42, as Joe Stoll got loose for a 42-yard run. Five plays later, junior Joe Graziani pushed across from three yards out with 9:50 left in the quarter to give St. Paul a 6-0 lead. Wes Stein's extra point was blocked, but the defense was bearing down on the Local offense to start the contest. On Local's second drive, a fourth-and-one play was ruled inches short and St. Paul took over from their own 46 and quickly moved to the ML 24-yard line, but quarterback Brad Frank was sacked for a 10-yard loss on fourth down to give Local the ball back, and more importantly, some momentum back according to head coach Tim Goodwin. "That Stoll kid was running hard and they came out and just took it to us right away there," he said. "I think our heads were still on the bus, because it was a long ride over. They jumped on us quick, but our kids responded. We made an adjustment on defense and gave our kids a little better chance, especially to stop the quick pitch, but once we did that, we were alright I thought." Local covered 65 yards on the first two plays of the second quarter to tie the game, when Otte got loose on his first scoring run from 26 yards out with 11:33 left in the half. The extra point attempt by Dan Fortkamp was wide left, but Local was just getting started. After a St. Paul punt pinned them at their own 30, Otte covered that in one play in plowing through the middle of the St. Paul defense untouched as Livengood had referred to. That made it 13-6 with 7:54 left in the half, but after a three-and-out by the Flyer offense, Local capped their half with a 31-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Chris Stucke to Damon Bertke with 3:35 left in the half to give them a 20-6 lead they took into the break. St. Paul appeared to catch a break after Local had chewed up 4:39 of the third quarter clock when senior Taylor Hehrer grabbed his ninth interception of the season on a fourth down play to prevent a touchdown, but it pinned the Flyer offense at their own six-yard line. After three plays netted just five yards, a Wes Stein punt gave Local field position at the Flyer 37, and Otte again covered that on the very first play to put his team up 27-6 with 5:15 left in the third quarter. Things then only snowballed in the fourth quarter, as the St. Paul offense was bogged down completely while Local kept adding to their rushing totals. Stucke ran for a 41-yard touchdown with 10:49 left, Greg Gehret ran in a 20-yard touchdown with 5:36 left, and Dillon Kremer capped the night with a 67-yard touchdown with 3:00 left to cap off the scoring and blowout win. "We haven't had this many big plays during the season," Goodwin said. "But a lot of that was their defensive alignment and so forth. Once we saw them line up we knew we had some one-on-one match-ups, and we hit some of those, so that was an important part. And of course the line has been playing well. They got good physical abilities, but their best ability is how smart they are. They told us at halftime to run the toss play to the weak side, and we ran it and it worked." Livengood knew his team was put into a no-win situation when they fell behind. "They mixed up their fronts defensively and we adjusted to that," he said. "But when your down three or four touchdowns, it's tough to come back when your game plan is to keep the ball and keep their offense off the field by moving the chains and getting points. We had to try and get something going with our passing game, and that played into their hands as they brought eight guys every time...we were playing with fire at that point." After Otte, it was Stucke picking up 62 yards and a score on five attempts while completing 3-of-7 passes for 79 yards with a touchdown and an interception for Local. Kremer touched the ball just twice, but got 70 yards and a touchdown. For St. Paul, Stoll's final game was another solid performance, as he ran for 183 yards on 22 attempts while making numerous tackles defensively. Rob Whitehurst added 12 attempts for 28 yards, while Graziani had 23 yards on seven attempts and the lone score. Frank was 4-of-8 passing for 39 yards, with junior Mark Masser catching a pair of passes for 31 yards.
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