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MEDINA– Every once in a while, there is nothing wrong with throwing in a little baseball talk when playing the game of football and when it comes to Flyer postseason tournament games over the years, one common baseball phrase always seems to find its way into the discussion. Call the bullpen. The Flyers continue to take late leads into tournament games and finish them off, much like a closer is asked to do in baseball. Saturday night in a regional semifinal against Warren John F. Kennedy, it was no different as the Flyers turned back the Eagles, 26-7, at Medina's Ken Dukes Stadium, where the Flyers are now 2-0 all-time in the tournament. With the win, St. Paul improved to 11-1 overall and will play Hopewell-Loudon for a third straight season for the right to advance to the Division VI final four. Each team has one win over the past two seasons, as the Chieftains (12-0) advanced with a 40-16 win over Mogadore. St. Paul-Hopewell also played in the first round back in 1996 at Mansfield Madison where it was the Flyers winning their first ever playoff game, 34-14. This season, however, the Chieftains finished as the No. 1 team in the Division VI Associated Press Poll this season and have gone 39-1 overall over the past four regular seasons. Against the Eagles, St. Paul took a 9-7 lead at halftime and a 16-7 lead into the fourth quarter, which meant huge factors on the side of the Flyers at both instances. When St. Paul has led at halftime in the postseason, the Flyers are now 13-0 all-time and even more impressive, when leading at the end of three quarters the Flyers are now an impressive 19-0 all-time. There have been different "closers" throughout the years for St. Paul in those victories, but last night's closer that head coach John Livengood called upon was quarterback Eric Schwieterman. On a night when Joe Graziani was bottled up for the first time all season, it was Schwieterman coming up with two huge touchdown runs in the second half to help set up the win. What made it even more impressive was the situation facing Schwieterman before the game. "Eric was sick with the flu this afternoon and walking up here after pregame he wasn't sure if he could play," Livengood said. "So we said 'lets give it a try and see what happens' and once he got the adrenaline going he was able to push through it and did a great job managing the offense tonight. Some of those runs he had were pass play breakdowns and a lot of those were by design and he did a nice job reading his blocks and making plays." The turning point came late in the third quarter as the Eagles came up less than a yard shy of a first down at its 45-yard line while trailing 9-7. Rather than risking going for it and coming up short, JFK elected to punt but a bad snap made punter Mike Perisa field the ball from the ground and he was caught with his knee touching the ground, giving St. Paul the ball with prime field position at the JFK 34. Faced with a third-and-7 two plays later, Schwieterman found Dominic Dellisanti for a big first down and 11 yards then pushed across from a yard out four plays later as Wes Stein's extra point gave the Flyers a 16-7 lead at the 2:37 mark of the quarter. A JFK punt then put the Flyer offense right back on the field and this time on another third down and needing three yards at the JFK 48, Schwieterman scrambled his way to a 24-yard run and a big first down. Matt Wilde then ran for 16 yards down to the 8, but an illegal use of hands penalty on the next play pushed the Flyers back to the 25. No problem. After finding nobody was open, Schwieterman tucked the ball and sliced his way right through the middle of the JFK defense to cover the distance needed for a touchdown with 10:15 left in the game to bring the Flyer Nation to it's feet. Stein's extra point made it a commanding 23-7 lead and after a turnover on downs put the Flyers at the JFK 16 a few series later, Stein added a 30-yard field goal with 2:57 left to close out the scoring. "We got beat by a better team and I congratulate them and hope they win it all," JFK coach Tom Napolet said. "It wasn't one of our best efforts and if you don't play well you lose, but that's not to take anything away from them, they outplayed us...they beat us and played better. We were never in sync offensively I thought, and they played better than we did and when that happens you lose." Coming in to the game, the key was going to be the ability of the Flyer defense to slow down Eagles running back and Division I recruit Jared Province, who entered the game with 1,381 yards and 35 touchdowns. It didn't look good early, as Province picked up 39 yards on his first two touches, however, he was held to just 37 yards on 14 attempts the rest of the game, although he did get the lone JFK touchdown on a 86-yard kickoff return after the Flyers had taken a 9-0 lead in the second quarter. "He is our offense," Napolet said. "If they stop Jared we're in trouble and that's what happened. They deserve all the credit." Livengood had high praise for Province afterwards. "Jared Province is the best running back I've seen in the time I've been coaching and I've seen some good ones in Spencer Dye (Sandusky St. Mary's) and kids like that," he said. "His speed and determination in which he runs and the way he always seems to fall forward...I was just really impressed with him and he was our focus defensively. "Our game plan was to shut him down and eliminate him as much as we could from certain formations and opportunities, and I thought our kids did a good job with the game plan and executed real well. He is just a great running back and I can't emphasize that enough." Graziani was held to 17 yards on eight attempts and did not get to field a punt or kick return on the night while being held scoreless for the first time all season, but Wilde was able to pick up 100 yards on 20 attempts and Schwieterman added 69 yards on 11 attempts. Wilde's 100-yard effort puts him over 1,000 yards total for the season, meaning the tandem of Wilde-Graziani becomes the fifth pair to have a multiple 1,000-yard backfield. The last two players to accomplish that feat in the same season was Bryan Pickens and Matt Grose in the 2001 season. Livengood talked about Wilde and Schwieterman's roles in replacing Graziani's production. "When you go against a team like JFK, I don't know that you can be explosive," he said. "But we were able to move the chains and get some scores. Every game you have to take what the defense gives you and last week those opportunities were there for Joe and this week they weren't. "Then again, last week they weren't there for Matt Wilde and none of our kids our selfish. They are all team players and do what they can to move the chains, whether that's Joe, Matt, Eric, Adam Pugh or whoever. They all step up and make plays and tonight it was Matt's turn to do that and Eric's turn as well." As for a third straight matchup with the Chieftains, Livengood said he will certainly take his chances with his team's defensive play of late. "Our defense is playing fantastic right now and to go against an explosive offense like this...I just think that every kid on our defense played a great game tonight. It was just a solid four quarters of football for our team." Warren JFK (9-3)
0 7 0 0 – 7 Scoring STP- JFK snap sailed
over punter's head for safety, 2:55 1st Stats Yards rushing- JFK-
131, STP- 211 |
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