By Mark Hazelwood

NORWALK- Not much has changed in a year for the St. Paul Flyers and the St. Mary Central Catholic Panthers football teams.

And for St. Paul, that's a good thing. One year after a 51-7 pasting of the Panthers at Strobel Field, the Flyers ran roughshed over the SMCC defense in a 47-0 win. In 2007, St. Paul claimed a 42-13 win, as the Flyers have now outscored the Panthers 140-20 in the past three meetings.

The Flyers rolled up 536 yards of total offense on the night, including 467 yards on the ground – 302 of which came in the first half alone.

Breaking in two new starting running backs with the reigning Division VI offensive player of the year, quarterback Eric Schwieterman, in street clothes didn’t appear to be a problem for the Flyers. Senior running back Brian Griffin ran for 265 yards and four touchdowns on 16 attempts while classmate Zach Service added 73 yards and a score on eight attempts.

“Brian ran the ball real well, and I was pleased with all our backs tonight,” St. Paul head coach John Livengood said. “Obviously if the backs are running like that he line blocked pretty well, and the backs blocked really well for each other too.”

Griffin opened the scoring with a 20-yard touchdown run at the 8:39 mark to cap a five-play, 60-yard scoring drive and Justin Roth added his first of five extra points for a 7-0 lead. After the Panthers (0-1) went three-and-out for the second of what became five straight possessions, Griffin outran six SMCC defenders en route to a 57-yard touchdown run at the 5:45 mark of the quarter for a 14-0 lead.

SMCC appeared to catch a break after the Flyers fumbled at the Panther 5-yard line and Zeb Kromer recovered for the Panthers. However, it was three quick plays and SMCC was punting into a stiff wind out of its end zone, which gave St. Paul the ball at the Panther 13 after a five-yard face mask penalty was tacked on.

It took just one play for quarterback Dan Tracht to find Service on a slant rout to cover the 13 yards for the score at the 10:53 mark of the second quarter to make it 21-0.

Service capped the next Flyer drive with a 44-yard touchdown run, but the kick failed for a 27-0 lead. SMCC was able to move the ball a bit on its next possession, picking up their initial first down of the game at the 5:28 mark of the second quarter. However, the drive stalled near midfield, and when the Flyers got the ball back it took just two plays with Griffin finding the open field again for a 52-yard touchdown run and a 34-0 halftime lead for St. Paul.

Griffin had 204 yards and three scores on just nine first-half attempts.

“They are a good team, even without their quarterback,” SMCC head coach Jason Ziegler said. “John does a great job and they have things rolling over there. To open up with a team like that, it’s tough."

The Flyers opened up the second half and drove quickly down the field, but the drive stalled on downs at the SMCC 12. The very next play, Jacob Green got free and ran for a 62-yard gain to the St. Paul 24 for the Panthers.

The run accounted for more yards than SMCC gained in the first half -54. However, that drive stalled on downs at the St. Paul 39 after Kromer was thrown for a 12-yard loss on fourth-and-two.

After St. Paul’s ensuing drive was being marred by penalties, Livengood called a timeout and had a talk with his team. The very next play, Griffin ran for a 41-yard touchdown for his final run of the night to make it a 40-0 margin.

“We’ve got a lot of things to work on,” Livengood said. “I was pleased with the effort and the outcome, but I saw a lot of mistakes and other things to get better at.”

The final score of the night came when sophomore Kyle Brake scored on a 20-yard run with just 21 seconds remaining in the game.

Livengood was pleased with Tracht's first fill-in job at QB for Schwieterman.

"I thought he did a good job, he was patient in the pocket and made good reads," he said. "There were some glitches here and there, but that will happen with anybody. Again, it was a good night, but there are things to work on.

"The defensive line played well. St. Mary had a good gameplan in trying to run that option, but our defensive front did a good job of defending it."

SMCC       0    0    0   0 – 0
St. Paul   14   20   6   7 – 47

Scoring

STP – Brian Griffin 20 run, (Justin Roth kick)
STP – Griffin 57 run, (Roth kick)
STP – Zach Service 13 pass from Dan Tracht, (Roth kick)
STP – Service 44 run, (kick failed)
STP – Griffin 52 run, (Roth kick)
STP – Griffin 41 run, (kick failed)
STP – Kyle Brake 20 run, (Roth kick)

Team stats
                        STM    STP

First downs     4          12
Run attempts   33        43
Yards rushing  118      467
Yards passing  21        69
Att-comp-int   10-3-0  8-4-0
Penalties-yards 7-35    4-40
Fumbles-lost    0-0       3-2
 

Individual stats
RUSHING – (STM): Zeb Kromer 19-68, Jacob Green 9-65, Adam Ring 1-1, Johnny Sciarappa 4-(-2); (STP): Brian Griffin 16-265, Zach Service 8-73, Dan Tracht 4-21, Kyle Brake 2-33, Adam Smith 6-40, Justin Stoll 2-13, Eric Bradt 4-18.
PASSING – (STM): Zeb Kromer 3-10-21-0-0; (STP): Dan Tracht 4-8-69-1-0.
RECEIVING – (STM): Jacob Green 1-3, Patrick Sennish 1-9, Andrew Carruthers 1-9; (STP): Jared Fries 2-49, Zach Service 1-9, Brian Griffin 1-9.