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The  Flyers won their 18th playoff game in school history and improved to 16-0 in the postseason when leading their opponents at the end of the third quarter  in Friday's 40-28 win over McComb.

By Ty Linder

FREMONT – It was vintage St. Paul football Friday night against McComb in the Divisional Playoffs as the Flyers bombarded the Panthers 40-28 in front of an announced crowd of 2,134 at Don Paul Stadium.

The Flyers (8-4) will make a return trip to the regional finals where they will have a chance at revenge against Hopewell-Loudon; the team who bounced the Flyers from last year’s post-season. St. Paul is making its third consecutive appearance in the regional final.

Leading 19-14 at halftime, St. Paul would be put on defense to begin the second half. Led by senior quarterback Kevin Westenbarger, the Panthers (9-3) mounted a threat. Using the spread passing formation, McComb advanced deep into St. Paul territory. On a first down play, Westenbarger hit senior Noah Shoop on a crossing route. Shoop turned up field and collided with St. Paul’s Joe Stoll who tore the ball free and recovered it himself killing McComb’s drive at the Flyer nine.

Still precariously ahead, the Flyers went on a classic St. Paul drive. After a false start, the Flyers marched 96 yards in 18 plays, using a whopping 9:43 of third period time. Along the way, St. Paul converted three third downs and a fourth-and-one. The score came appropriately from the man who started the rally, Stoll.  The big senior collected 142 yards on the night on 23 attempts to go with his four touchdowns. St. Paul had lengthened its lead to 27-14.

“I think it’s a result of two great weeks of practice,” an elated head coach John Livengood said after the game. “We just wanted to keep their offense off the field. That was a huge turnover and obviously a big change in momentum to be able to get points out of it.”

For the second time in as many weeks, the Flyers slipped behind 7-0. Early on, it was a struggle for the St. Paul offense which was forced to punt its first three possessions. Early in the second period the Flyers started to move.  Stoll appeared to put the Flyers on the board with a long run, but a penalty called it back. Junior Joe Graziani – who missed the Mohawk game due to injury – was able to get most of it back on the very next play. His run brought St. Paul to the McComb eight. Three plays later Stoll was in the end zone and Wes Stein followed with the kick to tie the game with 10:30 to the half.

“I just wanted to come back strong and give my team all I could,”  Graziani said.

McComb responded with an impressive drive to take the lead back. David Dishong plunged in from three yards away to give the Panthers the seven points right back with 5:04 remaining in the first half.

The Flyers were not able to put anything together on their ensuing possession, but Stein’s monster punt buried the Panthers deep in their own territory at the nine. A terrific read by defensive end Will Boose resulted in a sack, moving the ball back to the Panther four. On the second down play, St. Paul once again put Westenbarger under duress. He helplessly flipped the ball to the side and was called for intentional grounding. Since the violation occurred in the end zone, the Flyers were awarded with the safety.

The Flyers took the free kick and began to hack away. Moving to the Panther 35, Brad Frank hit Dominic Dellisanti on a deep ball and the latter torched the defense to put the Flyers in front with still 1:40 to play. St. Paul’s defense tightened up and forced McComb into a three-and-out. St. Paul took over at the McComb 46 with 63 seconds remaining. Frank hit Dellisanti with back-to-back passes to bring the Flyers to the Panther 14. Following a penalty, Livengood summoned Stein to attempt a 36-yard field goal with six seconds left. Stein’s kick cleared the crossbar by a couple lengths of the ball to give St. Paul the 19-14 lead.

“Our big goal going in was not necessarily to wear them out, but to keep their offense off the field.  We wanted to be able to run the ball and control the line of scrimmage. I’m just real proud of our kids and the work ethic they’ve put forth,” Livengood said.

Although the Panthers would score a pair of touchdowns in the fourth period, the issue was never really in doubt as the Flyers continued to work the clock with a punishing running game. As a result, the Flyers will take on Hopewell-Loudon (11-1) again in next Friday’s Region 22 championship game. It will be the 12th post-season game for St. Paul’s seniors; eager to erase the memories of last year’s regional final outcome, a 43-14 loss.

Rob Whitehurst added nine attempts for 87 yards to follow up Stoll on the ground, while Graziani added 13 carries for 77 yards. Frank was 4-of-7 passing for 72 yards and the touchdown pass to Dellisanti, while Mark Masser caught one pass for 12 yards. Dellisanti had a 12-yard touchdown catch as his lone reception during the first 11 games, but hauled in three passes for 60 yards including the touchdown against the Panthers. Defensively, Stoll added 10 tackles and the forced fumble and recovery to give him 122 tackles through 11 games.