By Mark Hazelwood

NEW LONDON- The St. Paul defense continues to make it an easy night for the chain crew, holding host New London to just 23 yards of offense and no first downs while putting up eight touchdowns in a 56-0 win over the Wildcats Friday night at Recreation Park.

The win moves the Flyers to 8-0 on the season, 5-0 in the Firelands Conference. The Wildcats now stand at 2-6 and 2-3. The Wildcats have not defeated the Flyers since a 21-20 come-from-behind win in 1998. The victory also marked the 25th consecutive regular season win for St. Paul - and the 19th straight Firelands Conference win.

A win over winless Plymouth next Saturday will clinch at least a share of a conference-high 17 Firelands Conference championship.

The Flyers led 14-0 after one quarter and 42-0 at the half.

St. Paul senior quarterback Eric Schwieterman, who connected on 6-of-7 passes for 78 yards and three scores, hooked up with Dan Tracht on a 9-yard pass for the visitors first touchdown and just three minutes later Schwieterman found Brian Roberts on an 18-yard touchdown pass to make it 14-0.

Zach Service opened the second quarter scoring with a 6-yard run and that was followed up just two minutes later by Schwieterman on a 24-yard scoring run to make it 28-0. Justin Wilde then returned his third punt in as many weeks for a score, covering 45 yards to push the advantage up to 35-0.

Schwieterman closed the first half scoring when he found Daren Smith in the end zone from 10 yards out with 3:38 to go in the half.

The Flyer reserves and freshmen played the entire second half with Adam Smith scoring on a 9-yard run and Isaac Livengood scoring from eight yards out.

Iin contrast of the Wildcats 23 yards, St. Paul totaled up 396 despite being out the services of senior standout Brian Griffin, who is out with a sprained shoulder.

St. Paul totaled 396 total yards to 23 for New London.

Service led St. Paul with 60 yards on nine tries. Kyle Brake added 57 yards on six attempts, while Livengood chipped in 52 yards on four carries.