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SANDUSKY The evidence had clearly been established. But the end result said it didn't care. That was the growing sentiment after the St. Paul Flyers opened the season with an impressive 51-7 win over Sandusky St. Mary's Saturday night in the season opener for both teams. The struggles for the Flyers at Strobel Field had been well documented coming in. St. Paul was just 4-12 at the venue since the series resumed in 1976 and just 3-5 under head coach John Livengood, with four of those losses coming by 13 points or more. Furthermore, Flyer fans had to watch in horror in 1998 (Jay Morrow), 2000 (Nick Van Dresser) and 2006 (Mike Mundy) as three players went down with broken legs and were lost for the season right off the bat. Absolutely NONE of that mattered Saturday night. St. Paul had a touchdown on the opening kickoff called back because of a holding penalty, and also had a pair of extra-point kicks sail wide. Other than that, the Flyers looked in November form. I think our kids came out ready to play and executed well, St. Paul coach John Livengood said after the Flyers rolled to a 51-7 win Saturday over St. Mary Central Catholic at Strobel Field. Im sure well see some things on film we need to get better at, but this was a good start to the season. The win was the most lopsided margin of victory in the 57 meetings between the two teams, and of course just the fifth St. Paul win in 17 games at Strobel Field in the past 32 years. I really never bought into that bad luck thing, Livengood said. Its just a tough environment to play being over on the other side of Strobel. Its like being on a island, and St. Mary has had some good teams out there against us. The Flyers piled up 389 yards of offense and scored on all seven first-half possessions while building a 45-0 lead. You hope for that, Livengood said of the first half performance from his offense. I think the guys did a real good job executing the offense but Eric Schwietermann played 15 games at quarterback for us last year and Matt Wilde played 15 games at running back. We have a lot of guys like that one offense, but I was really pleased with the way our young receivers stepped up. Wilde finished with a game-high 67 yards rushing on nine carries, with touchdown runs of 17 and 6 yards after his 76-yard kickoff return to open the game was called back because of a penalty. Rob Kunisch added 57 yards on the ground on eight carries while Schwietermann was 9-of-10 passing for 188 yards with a 44-yard scoring toss to Daniel Tracht. Tracht finished with three catches for 93 yards while Brian Roberts added two catches for 41 yards. And while the St. Paul offense was scoring at will, the defense limited the host Panthers to just six total yards with minus 26 yards rushing. Our defense is really inexperienced, Livengood said. We have just three starters back, but they played well. I know well see more on film, but this was a good start. Wilde got things started with his 17-yard scoring run, followed by an 8-yard TD from Rob Kunisch and a 15-yard TD scamper from Zach Service before the first quarter had ended. It was more of the same in the second quarter and Schwietermann found a wide-open Tracht for the 44-yard scoring strike, Wilde had a 6-yard scoring run and Kunisch went in from 10 yards out before Schwietermann ended the half with a 37-yard field goal. The St. Paul reserves got the lone touchdown of the third quarter when David Thomas raced 66 yards with a fumble, and Dane Windisch finished the scoring for St. Mary CC when he returned a punt 68 yards for a touchdown with 10:24 left to play. Up next for St. Paul is the home opener and a key test with Tiffin Calvert, a team many are high on this season in the Midland Athletic Conference after narrowly missing the postseason a year ago at 6-4 while its also a team that gave the Flyers all they could handle in a 34-21 St. Paul victory last season. Calvert lost its opener, 40-36, to McComb, another Division VI playoff regular who St. Paul beat 40-28 in a second round playoff game in 2006 at Fremont. Since 2000, St. Paul leads the series with the Senecas 5-3 and are 10-5 since the series began back in 1993. St. Paul
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51 STP Matt Wilde 17 run (Eric Schwietermann kick) |
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