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St. Paul posts largest margin of victory and most points ever in a playoff game in rout of East Canton.

By Mark Hazelwood

NORWALK –  East Canton head coach Steve Miller knew the storm was coming.

But the hope was his Hornets would be able to survive the storm and put up a fight Friday night in his team’s Division VI region 21 quarterfinal against the St. Paul Flyers at Warren Whitney Field.

Instead, the No. 7 Hornets ran into a forecast of Wilde weather that proved to show no breaks in the storm on radar in the form of senior running back Matt Wilde and junior defensive back Justin Wilde as the No. 2 Flyers used four touchdowns behind the two brothers in a 56-7 blowout win.

“We talked all week to the kids that it is a home playoff game for them and we’d have to weather the storm early,” Miller said. “And the storm unfortunately never stopped. We did end up having to weather a storm early...but it kept on going. It was suppose to stop at some point and it never did.”

Matt Wilde finished with 132 yards and two touchdowns on 11 attempts in just a half of work that included an 84-yard score called back on the first play from scrimmage while Justin scored twice despite not touching the ball offensively in the form of a 60-yard interception return and a fumble recovery in the end zone on his way to tying a school record with three interceptions in a single game.

Justin Wilde joins a list of seven other players in program history with three interceptions in a single game, however, he became the first player to accomplish the feat in a playoff game.

It was home sweet home once again for St. Paul, as the team improved to 6-1 all-time in the playoffs at Warren Whitney Field and a staggering 77-10 overall at the venue since the 1993 season.

It was also the most points scored by the Flyers in 33 playoff games, surpassing a 51-6 victory over Cuyahoga Heights in the first round back in 1997. With the win, St. Paul (11-0) advances to play McDonald (11-0), a 21-7 winner over Berlin Center Western Reserve, next Friday at a site to be determined.

“Even though the touchdown was called back on the very first play for holding I thought it was a good way to set the tone,” Flyers coach John Livengood said. “We had a good drive to start the game and a good defensive series to open as well, and it just kind of took off from there.”

With the ball pushed back to the Flyer 8-yard line after the initial buzzkill holding call, Adam Pugh ripped off a 33-yard run and quarterback Eric Schwieterman two plays later added a 27-yard run and it was back to business.

Two plays later, Pugh went right through the middle and outran two defenders for a 31-yard touchdown at the 9:25 mark and Schwieterman added the first of eight extra points for the 7-0 lead.

The Flyer defense got two straight three-and-out series against the Hornets after the opening score, and the offense followed suit with a touchdown after each one to give the team a 21-0 lead after the opening 12 minutes.

Matt Wilde capped a six-play, 66-yard drive with a seven-yard run while Daniel Tracht finished off a five-play, 56-yard drive with a 14-yard pass from Schwieterman with 3:08 left in the quarter.

A seven-play, 64-yard drive followed another defensive stand as Brian Griffin scored on a 16-yard run with 9:54 left in the half for a 28-0 lead and when the Hornets looked to the air to try and get momentum, Justin Wilde was there for his first interception of the night and he turned on the speed up the East Canton sidelines 60 yards for a 35-0 lead with 6:23 left in the half.

“They were even more than we thought coming in,” Miller said of St. Paul. “There wasn’t any panic early when they jumped on us, but I think when it started to get into the 30’s it started sinking in that the reality is this team is a lot better than we are.”

After a gamble at midfield on fourth-and-nine from its own 48, East Canton couldn’t complete the pass and gave the ball over to St. Paul and the short field meant four quick plays and another score as Matt Wilde got his second score from 29 yards out for a 42-0 lead with 2:50 left in the half.

Justin Wilde then got his second interception moments later, and elder brother Matt carried twice for 39 yards to the East Canton 2, but Livengood elected to take a knee and not rub in the score heading into the locker room.

The Flyers averaged 11.3 yards per play in the first half.

“Getting a push up front on the offensive line was something we were concerned about,” Livengood said. “But it is a credit to our guys for communicating and talking with each other with the different fronts they saw and executing. We saw they had eight in the box defensively and felt we had to get to the perimeter a little bit.”

In the second half, the first team offense saw no action for St. Paul but after the second team turned it over on downs at the Hornets 6, a fumble ensued on the very next play and Justin Wilde was there to scoop up the ball and fall into the end zone to make it 49-0 at the 4:49 mark of the third quarter.

Another two plays later and Wilde had his record-tying third interception, which led to a six-play, 53-yard scoring drive capped off by a Zach Service four-yard score with 40 seconds left in the third to cap the scoring.

“Justin just played good sound football,” Livengood said. “That was a key for us because our front four defensively put us in good third-and-long situations that helped our secondary out.”

While East Canton was held to just 66 yards of offense on 39 plays, the Flyers rolled up 360 yards rushing with Pugh next in line behind Wilde with three attempts for 67 yards, all on the opening drive. Schwieterman added 58 yards on five attempts and Service picked up 46 yards on six attempts.

Schwieterman completed 4 of 7 passes for 42 yards and a score with Tracht catching three of those for 29 yards.