Flyer defense shuts down Huron, offense rolls in surprise rout

A year after two of the area’s traditional powers in St. Paul and Huron played one of the more memorable regular season games in recent memory in front of 2,317 fans — a 21-14 St. Paul win — that was nowhere near the case in a 42-3 blowout win for the Flyers Saturday night in front of somewhat of a sparse crowd at Kalahari Field at Huron Memorial Stadium.

St. Paul senior running back Brian Griffin scored five touchdowns — one shy of the school record — while also intercepting two passes and catching three passes for 74 yards. He finished with 152 yards on 27 attempts rushing.

The Flyers picked up 351 yards of total offense to Huron’s 127 in improving to 3-0 overall while the Tigers fell to 2-1. After gaining 48 yards on its initial possession and getting a 35-yard field goal by Nico Samaniego with 5:07 left in the first quarter to take a 3-0 lead — the Tigers were held to 44 net yards over the final three-plus quarters.

"It is easy to highlight a lot of individuals, but a lot of our kids stepped up," St. Paul head coach John Livengood said. "We talk about playing with fortitude and playing every play for four quarter with everyone doing their part and doing their best...I think all of our kids did that."

“The bottom line is we got beat in every phase of the game and outcoached in every phase of the game,” Huron head coach Tony Legando said. “It’s not too often we get schooled on our own field here, but tonight it happened. If we have the program we say we do, we’ll pick ourselves up and continue to improve.”

St. Paul got an emotional lift as Eric Schwieterman — last season’s Division VI Offensive Player of the Year — suited up and handled kickoff duties for the Flyers. The senior quarterback broke his thumb on Aug. 10 and is slowly being worked back into things.

It appeared a defensive struggle was going to highlight most of the first half as the Flyers got a 26-yard punt return to the Huron 23-yard line, but had to settle for a 39-yard field goal attempt to try and tie the game by Jim Roth.

The kick was no good, but the St. Paul defense forced a quick three-and-out and with good field position at the Huron 45 — Griffin bursted into the open field untouched on the second play for a 43-yard scoring run and Roth hit the first of six extra points for a 7-3 lead with 8:17 left in the half.

Another Huron punt gave St. Paul possession at the Tiger 36, and on the second play Griffin caught a 33-yard pass from Dan Tracht and scored on a five-yard run the next play for a 14-3 lead at the 5:05 mark of the second quarter.

The Tigers again couldn’t stay on the field the following possession and another punt gave the Flyers possession at the Huron 30. On fourth-and-nine, Tracht found Brian Roberts for a 26-yard gain to the Huron 4 and three plays later on another fourth down, Griffin punched it in from a yard out with 36 seconds left in the half for a 21-3 lead.

“The kids played very well,” St. Paul head coach John Livengood said. “The defense played outstanding and we were able to get great field position because of that and great punt returns. We just kept plugging away on offense and for what they were doing defensively, our line did a real nice job controlling the line of scrimmage and pounding it out.”

St. Paul put the game away with two more Griffin touchdowns in the third quarter. Facing a third-and-five at the Huron 40, Griffin caught a 34-yard pass and scored the next play from six yards out to make it 28-3 at the 7:42 mark. After taking over at the Huron 34 on the following possession, Griffin carried four straight times — the last a 25-yard scoring run at the 3:29 mark for a 35-3 lead.

Adam Smith scored the final touchdown — which was set up by a Griffin interception — from a yard out with six minutes left in the game. Huron had just 36 yards and three first downs in the second half.

“I think when you play a great team with that much quickness, they magnify your weaknesses,” Legando said. “They magnified ours tonight and I don’t think there will be any doubt what we have to work on when all is said and done.

“Their quickness created a frenzy out there where we could never really get a handle on the ball. We never got a handle offensively on what we were trying to do and I have to prepare our team better in those situations. Just like we ask the kids to learn from their mistakes — I have to learn from mine too.”

Huron was led by Jake Hillman’s six catches for 75 yards while Sean Fantozz caught three passes for 19 yards. Joe Ramey was 8-of-11 passing for 84 yards. On top of Griffin’s performance, Tracht was 5-of-7 passing for 112 yards.

St. Paul outscored its non-conference opponents 126-13 with Schwieterman out of action. His status for next week is still day-to-day.

“There is no question it was a nice lift to have him on the field, even if he could only kick tonight,” Livengood said of Schwieterman. “Having him in uniform and participating — it’s nice for everyone, but especially for him because he has gone through so much the past few weeks.

"You hate to see anyone go through that as a senior. Hopefully he will continue to get healthy and we’ll see more and more of him.”

St. Paul is at Crestview (3-0) next week in the Firelands Conference opener.

"They are a very good defensive team again," Livengood said of Crestview. "We'll have our work cut out for us."

St. Paul 0 21 14 7 - 42
Huron 3 0 0 0 - 3

Rushing - (STP): Brian Griffin 27-152, Dan Tracht 10-23, Zach Service 2-4, Adam Smith 3-15, Eric Bradt 2-10, Justin Stoll 1-2; (H): Derek Dowell 7-23, Justin Hicks 3-2, Brian Bollenbacher 2-7, Joe Ramey 3-4

Receiving - (STP): Brian Griffin 3-74, Brian Roberts 1-12, Zach Service 1-12; (H): Jake Hillman 6-75, Sean Fantozz 3-19, Patrick Moore 1-7