By Mark Hazelwood

NORWALK- There was no beating around the point for the St. Paul Flyer football team Saturday night at Warren Whitney Field.

Knowing full-well it was a matchup of 0-8 at 8-0, the Flyers put away an opponent in the quickest amount of time ever, scoring 21 points less than three minutes into the game of a 63-0 win over Plymouth to clinch at least a share of a 17th Firelands Conference championship.

The win is the 26th straight regular season win for St. Paul, and the 20th consecutive FC win.

St. Paul (9-0, 6-0) also clinched an eighth home playoff game since the expanded format in 1999, and will be ranked No. 4 in region 21 entering the final week of the season - but will move up with a win over Monroeville (7-2, 5-1) in the season finale at home next Saturday. It will be the 50th meeting between the two rivals.

Eric Schwieterman played a hand in the first four touchdowns for St. Paul, starting with a 46-yard touchdown pass to Dan Tracht on the game's first play and Jim Roth added the first of nine extra points for a 7-0 lead. Two weeks ago vs. South Central Schwieterman and Tracht scored on the first play of the game as well, a 55-yarder.

As soon as Plymouth got the ball, the Big Red put it on the ground and Schwieterman was there to pick it up and easily score on a 19-yard return that made it 14-0 before the St. Paul Marching Brass could settle in to play the fight song.

Moments later, Schwieterman intercepted Plymouth's only pass of the first half, returning it 32 yards for another score that made it 21-0. Sophomore Isaac Livengood then punched in a score from a yard out after Justin Wilde narrowly missed his fourth punt return for a touchdown this season, however, Wilde got in the end zone on the next possession as he caught a 33-yard touchdown from Schwieterman to make it 35-0.

The final first quarter score came when Tracht turned in a short catch on an out pattern into a 62-yard touchdown catch to push the lead up to 42-0.

Three touchdowns highlighted the second quarter as Eric Bradt finished off a short drive with a 1-yard run and Livengood added a 26-yard scoring run, which was followed up by a 25-yard scoring run from Zach Service that made it 63-0.

With a chance to go up 70-0 at halftime following a fumble recovery at the Plymouth 5-yard line, Flyer coach John Livengood instructed his offense to take four consecutive kneel downs, giving the ball back to Plymouth and ending the first half with a 63-0 margin.

In the second half, both coaches agreed to 8-minute quarters and the Flyers kept the playbook limited to simple running plays up the middle, designed to pick up little yardage.

While the offense was putting up its points, the defense held Plymouth to just 10 yards of offense and no first downs. In three wins over South Central, New London and Plymouth, the Flyers allowed 65 yards of offense and no first downs.

Schwieterman finished 3-of-3 passing for 141 yards and three scores while Tracht caught two of those passes for 108 yards. Service ran for 56 yards on three attempts while Livengood ran five times for 50 yards and Alaric Newcomer managed 48 yards in five attempts.