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NORWALK- Many people that look at a 56-0 score would hardly refer to it as an “ugly” win, but that was the case Saturday night after the state-ranked St. Paul Flyers cruised past winless Mapleton in a Firelands Conference matchup. St. Paul (6-0, 3-0) had an impressive 468 yards of total offense, but fumbled the ball five times and lost four of them in the first half alone while also committing five penalties for 55 yards in the opening 17 minutes of the game. “I’m not very happy with our performance or the way we played,” St. Paul head coach John Livengood said. “I’m happy with the win, but we played sloppy and made too many turnovers, too many mental mistakes and way too many penalties. I am happy with the scoreboard and the end result though. “But in this situation, we’ve got to play better than this. We want to get better each week, and I’m not so sure we did this week.” Despite losing three first quarter fumbles, the Flyers got on the board twice as senior Matt Wilde cut across field through the entire defense for a 73-yard touchdown run at the 8:10 mark of the opening quarter and Eric Schwieterman added his first of three extra points for a 7-0 lead. At the 3:24 mark of the first, Schwieterman then rolled out from the quarterback position and cut up the left sideline where he did a complete 360-spin move in front of the Mapleton bench before finishing off a 59-yard scoring run, but the kick failed for a 13-0 lead. After a Geoff Hainline interception, the Flyers marched 56 yards in nine plays that took 4:37 off the clock as Schwieterman ran right through the middle of the Mountie defense on a quarterback draw for a five-yard touchdown but the try for two points failed to leave the lead at 19-0. Schwieterman then had one more video game type move in him, as he’d score on a 26-yard run in which he was stopped six yards into the run by a Mapleton defensive lineman, but the junior simply pushed the defender off him then split another five Mountie defenders to finish the touchdown with 41 seconds left in the half. Matt Wilde added the two-point conversion to make it 27-0, but moments later junior Brian Roberts timed a Mapleton screen pass perfectly, snatching it right out of the hands of a receiver to return it 52 yards for another score. Schwieterman then ran in the conversion to make it 35-0 at the break. “When we hung on to the ball we ran the ball well and made good decisions,” Livengood said. “We were just inconsistent in our execution and that’s something we’ll have simply have to work on.” Lost in all the Flyer turnovers was again the St. Paul defense, which set a school record with its third straight shutout, all in conference play. The Flyers have outscored opponents 166-0 in the three victories. “I’m happy with getting a shutout,” Livengood said. “Our defense has gotten better each week.” The second half saw Schwieterman hit Justin Wilde in stride on the Flyers first play from scrimmage for a 56-yard touchdown with 9:38 left in third to make it 42-0, and Matt Wilde again found a seam in the Mapleton defense for a 49-yard score that pushed the lead out to 49-0. The final score came with 6:17 left as Zach Service scored from four yards out. With just over five minutes left in the game, the Flyers second-team offense had the ball first-and-goal at the Mapleton 2, but Livengood ordered third-string quarterback Brad Doughty to take four straight knees to give the ball back to the Mounties (0-6, 0-3). “John Livengood is a class act, he was rotating his second and third team in early,” Mapleton head coach Scott Young. “But that’s who they are. They have a tradition up here and John’s built this program into a machine that’s been going 18 years strong. He’s worked hard at it and I hope they win the Division VI title, I really do.” For St. Paul, Schwieterman ran four times for 93 yards and three touchdowns while completing 6 of 8 passes for 93 yards and a score. Matt Wilde ran eight times for 143 yards and two scores. Daniel Tracht caught three passes for 32 yards to pace the Flyer receiving as four different players caught the six completions. St. Paul will travel to South Central (4-2, 2-1) Friday night. Mapleton 0
0 0 0 – 0 Scoring
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