By Mark Hazelwood

NORWALK- Too much speed and a healthy Eric Schwieterman.

The Flyers (10-0, 7-0) – led by a healthy quarterback in Schwieterman – rolled to 471 yards of total offense and seven touchdowns in a 49-14 win over the Eagles (7-3, 5-2).

St. Paul will unofficially be the No. 2 seed in the Division VI region 21 playoffs, hosting Berlin Center Western Reserve (9-1) next Saturday night at 7 p.m. It is the Flyers 27th straight regular season win and 21st straight Firelands Conference win, putting the touches on a third straight outright conference title.

Monroeville needed a win to make the playoffs in region 21, entering the game in 9^th in the region and that is where the Eagles finish after the loss.

It was the 50th meeting between the two rivals, with St. Paul now holding a 29-20-1 lead in the series, including nine straight at home since 1991.

“Their speed and quickness was the difference … a major difference,” Ringholz said. “Their speed and quickness is by far and away better than anyone in our conference. That doesn’t allow for that many mistakes because if you do, you’ll pay for it.”

Schwieterman – who missed the first five weeks with a broken thumb – completed 12-of-18 passes for 159 yards and one touchdown while running for 144 yards on 12 attempts with two touchdowns.

After missing the past two weeks to an injury, Brian Griffin opened the scoring for St. Paul on a perfectly executed sweep play, which covered 20 yards to cap a 9-play, 56-yard scoring drive and Jim Roth added the first of seven extra points for a 7-0 lead.

The Eagles fumbled the ball away at the Flyer 45-yard line on their first possession, and seven plays later Schwieterman hit Dan Tracht on a 7-yard touchdown pass to make it 14-0 with 1:34 left in the first quarter.

The lead grew to 21-0 as Monroeville – playing for its postseason lives – looked to convert a fourth-and-1 at its own 43, but the play was stuffed to give the Flyers the ball and Zach Service scored from a yard out with 10:50 left in the half.

Monroeville got on the board with a 10-play, 76-yard scoring drive that took 4:02 off the clock as Justin Sparks scored from three yards out and he added the extra point to cut the margin to 21-7, but Schwieterman had a quick-strike answer.

Faced with a third-and-1 at the St. Paul 47, Schwieterman looked to bull ahead for a short gain, but instead knocked over two Monroeville defenders, sprinted past two linebackers, then juked and weaved through three more defenders in the secondary before hurdling one more defender on his way into the end zone for a wild 53-yard touchdown run with 5:29 left in the half that allowed the Flyers to take a 28-7 lead into halftime.

“One of the things were blessed with is some quickness,” St. Paul head coach John Livengood said. “Monroeville is a big, physical team and the going was tough on the inside and we felt like we needed to use our speed and that allowed us to open things up with our passing game.”

Griffin capped a 10-play, 60-yard drive to open the scoring in the second half on a 1-yard run while adding an 8-yarder with 3:32 left. Between those two scores, Schwieterman did it again, swerving and moving in and around as many as five Monroeville defenders ona  42-yard touchdown run on the first play of the fourth quarter to make it 42-7.

Sparks scored again for the Eagles on another 3-yard run with 9:09 left in the game to wrap up Monroeville’s scoring.

Livengood talked about the Flyers winning FC title No. 17 in the program’s history.

“It’s always our number one goal to win the Firelands Conference,” he said. “And I’m proud of the way the kids battled back this year through injuries. They didn’t make excuses, and we didn’t allow them to.”

Griffin carried the ball 22 times for 154 yards to go over the 1,000-yard mark in eight games played while Tracht caught eight passes for 88 yards and Justin Wilde caught three passes for 38 yards.

For Monroeville, Cory Long picked up 71 yards on 21 attempts while Brian Ringholz completed 11-of-24 passes for 101 yards. Sparks caught four passes for 61 yards.

Ringholz committed to being 95 percent sure it was his last game for the Eagles after 32 seasons.

“He set the bar and the standard for coaches in this area,” Livengood said of Ringholz. “For me personally, he’s always been my measuring stick that I’ve always looked up to. I will really miss coaching against him if this is it. He’s a really big part of this rivalry.”

Monroeville   0   7   0  7 – 14
St. Paul        14 14  7 14 – 49

Scoring

STP – Brian Griffin 20 run, (Jim Roth kick)
STP – Dan Tracht 7 pass from Eric Schwieterman, (Roth kick)
STP – Zach Service 1 run, (Roth kick)
MON – Justin Sparks 3 run, (Sparks kick)
STP – Schwieterman 53 run, (Roth kick)
STP – Griffin 1 run, (Roth kick)
STP – Schwieterman 42 run, (Roth kick)
MON – Sparks 3 run, (Sparks run)
STP – Griffin 8 run, (Roth kick)

Team stats
                              M         STP
First downs             16        19
Rushing att.-yards    33-159 39-312
Passing yards          101      159
Att-comp-int          24-11-0   18-12-0
Penalties-yards       1-10      9-75
Fumbles-lost           2-1       1-0