Flyers rock Plymouth, 56-0

"One of the things we did this week is we really challenged the kids after the way we played against Elyria Catholic. Not that we necessarily played that bad, but we wanted to come out strong to start conference play at home."- St. Paul head coach John Livengood after a 56-0 win over Plymouth.

NORWALK – The Flyers rebounded from a tough setback at Elyria Catholic just how it wanted to Saturday night and senior captain Joe Graziani continues to live up to his explosive capabilities he was labeled with in the preseason.

It all added up to a 56-0 blowout win over Plymouth at Warren Whitney Field in the Firelands Conference opener for both teams. With the win, St. Paul improved to 3-1 overall while Plymouth fell to 2-2. Last week, St. Paul fell 22-14 at Elyria Catholic in which they had a chance to score in the final minute before an interception at the EC 10 ended the game.

Graziani, who St. Paul head coach John Livengood called a threat to score each time he touched the ball before the season started, continues to fit the bill as he touched the ball six times at running back for 167 yards and three touchdowns in less than a half of work. He now has 467 yards rushing and nine touchdowns on just 43 attempts while racking up 13 touchdowns total in four games.

"One of the things we did this week is we really challenged the kids after the way we played against Elyria Catholic," St. Paul head coach John Livengood said. "Not that we necessarily thought we played bad, but coming off a loss we wanted to come out strong and play a strong game while opening up conference play and I'm real pleased with the kids effort."

The scoring started inside of five minutes left in the opening quarter when junior Matt Wilde scored on a 21-yard run with 4:31 left. Wes Stein added his first of what became eight extra points on the night for a 7-0 lead and the floodgates officially had opened. Graziani then got in on the fun with a 46-yard scoring run after the Big Red wisely refused to punt to him, which they did all game. That made the score 14-0 at the 2:22 mark.

After a third Plymouth punt in the quarter, Graziani scored on the very first play from 54 yards away with 34 seconds left in the first quarter for a 21-0 lead. Plymouth again punted, as they finished with just 110 yards of offense for the game, and this time after a 13-yard run by Wilde; Graziani scored a third time on a 48-yard run with 10:11 left in the first half to officially blow the game open at 28-0.

Plymouth, feeling cornered and forced to pull out all the stops to get something going, attempted a fake punt at its own 40 that fell incomplete. Graziani carried a final time in the game at the 6:43 mark for eight yards and Wilde broke three tackles up the middle on a 22-yard touchdown run at the 6:07 mark. Another Plymouth punt gave the offense the ball back and this time Eric Schwieterman found Ryan Frank for a 31-yard touchdown pass for a 42-0 lead they took into the break at the 2:57 mark.

In all, the Flyers ran 19 times for 276 yards and five touchdowns in the first half.

"I thought we did a nice job controlling the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball," Livengood said. "Obviously both our running backs (Graziani and Wilde) did a nice job running the ball tonight and Eric threw the ball well while making some good decisions with his passes and defensively we played real well. When we get the shutout we're happy with that, so all the way around, it was just a real solid game."

St. Paul scored once each quarter in the second half while working in all of the 74-man roster. Senior Mark Masser returned an interception 56 yards off a Cody Smith pass with 5:21 left in the third quarter and Dan Tracht scored on an 11-yard run with 9:29 left to close out the scoring.

Plymouth, who has not beaten St. Paul since 1994, had just one first down in the second half and five total.

After Graziani, it was Wilde picking up 74 yards on just eight attempts and his two scores while Schwieterman was 2-of-4 passing for 43 yards and a touchdown.

Next week, St. Paul travels to Ashland Crestview on Friday night. The Cougars beat Mapleton 29-8 in its FC opener to improve to 2-2 overall after four games. The Flyers have won 13-of-16 against Crestview since 1991, including the last three trips to Olivesburg.