1997 | 1998 | Sidney | Van Wert | Shawnee | Kenton | Elida | Bath | Celina | Defiance | Wapakoneta | Ottawa-Glandorf
Roughrider Football 1998 Illustrated
Photographs by Andrews Photography
 |
Photographs by Andrews Photography |
DATELINE SEPTEMBER 4 - SKIP BAUGHMAN STADIUM - SIDNEY, OHIO
Riders welcome new Head Coach Frye with a 21-10 victory over the Sidney Yellowjackets.
More info to come...
 |
Coaches strive for their teams to get better game by game and week by week. But Friday night, Doug Frye's Roughriders seemed to get better half by half. Actually, minute by minute in the second half would be more accurate.
After a rocky first half which saw the offense fail to get a first down, the Blue and Gold rallied Tor a 21-10 win over the Sidney Yellow Jackets Friday night at Skip Baughman Stadium. This marked the first win for Frye as the Riders' head coach.
The Yellow Jackets came out and completely dominated the Riders in the first halt but thanks to a spectacular St. Marys defense, Sidney only held a 10-7 lead at the half.
 |
"Our defense was fabulous," Frye said. "I really want to compliment our seniors on the defensive side. Secondly, our new defensive coaching staff has stepped in after years and years of great defensive football. Todd Armstrong, Jim Hollman and Greg Freewalt have done a fabulous job on that side of the ball."
Jason Homan put the Riders on the board first when he picked off a Ben Raterman pass and ran it back 65 yards for the score. Kurt Kill added the point after and the Riders led 7-0 with 9:25 left in the first quarter.
The 'Jackets came roaring back though and scored on the ensuing possession when Andy Shaffer connected on a 19-yard field goal. Although Sidney was able to score three points, by all rights they should have scored seven. They used a 12-play drive and tallied four first downs in the process. But the Roughrider defense, led by a key Joe Young tackle, held the Yellow Jackets at bay.
Sidney was able to take the lead in the second quarter when Chris VanTilburgh broke loose for a 46 yard touchdown run with 10:44 left in the period.
While the Roughrider offense wasn't able to get anything going, failing to get a first down in the first half, the Yellow Jackets tallied 256 yards of total offense in the half. But it was the St. Marys defense which stepped up and made those yards inconsequential.
"I think they made a couple of mistakes in the first half that we should have capitalized on," said Sidney coach Matt Kemper. "We missed a couple of real good opportunities."
After finding themselves still in the game and being down by just three points at the half, the Riders came out after the break and did their best Jekyll and Hyde impression and began to put things together offensively.
 |
On their second possession of the second half, St. Marys finally gained a first down when quarterback John Meinerding linked up with Nick Coleman and Bob Huttis for a hook-and-ladder play to gain 10 yards. This apparently was the spark the Riders needed. Seven plays later, Huttis put St. Marys ahead with a nine-yard TD run. Kill added the point after and with 2:42 left in the third quarter, the Riders found themselves on top 14-10.
The defense went back to work as they forced a Sidney fumble late in the third quarter and the offense was able to capitalize when Josh Lamb barreled 10 yards for the score. The point after was good and the Riders were on their way to the 21-10 final.
"I really don't think they did a whole lot differently," Kemper said of the Riders in the second half. "They played very similar defensively and we thought we were real sound with what we were doing.
"Big 'mo' (momentum) is a powerful thing," he added. "They got the ball to bounce their way a couple of times and the momentum got in their favor. They were feeling confident and started beating us off the ball a little bit. I thought the important thing was they played hard the whole way. For a young football team, you've got to get to the point where you are playing to win and not playing not to lose."
"The thing that really impressed me was our heart and our character," Frye said about his team. "I've never questioned that with these kids. I've challenged them because I think we may have let a little bit of that slip and our kids responded. It takes great character to be down at halftime in your opening game with an offense that has generated no offense in the first half and come back. For those kids to believe in what we're doing and believe in themselves and keep coming back, I think it is a real tribute to the kids and their families."
After taking the 21-10 lead, the Riders used big plays from Brian Christopher, Dan Sawmiller, Brandon Brewer, Homan, Bills, Young and the rest of the Rider defense to keep the Jackets from mounting any sort of threat.
 |
Sidney did show signs of life when they were able to get the ball back on a bizarre punt play. Rider Ken Williams was back to receive the ball and instead of catching the ball, he let it bounce. The official ruled it bounced off Williams' leg but it clearly didn't even touch him. It went directly through his legs. Nonetheless, the Yellow Jackets got the ball back. They were unable to capitalize though as Sawmiller sacked Raterman and Young and Homan stopped VanTilburgh on a 4th-and-9 from the St. Marys' 25 yard line.
"In the second half, our kids played St. Marys' football and that was the difference in the ball game," Frye said. "All those kids, defensively as a team, played well. From Joe Young to Brian Christopher to all 10 seniors that played over there, they did a great job. I think our youngsters on the offensive side started to step up as we came on. You've got to complement the core of the offensive group with three seniors in the middle. You win with seniors and our seniors would not be denied in the second half."
"They have 24 seniors on that team and they have been in winning situations and we haven't yet," Kemper said of the Riders.
Kemper was able to see some positives out of his team's performance Friday night.
"We executed some things drastically better than we have all year," he said. "I was real happy with our option game and our running game in general. You couldn't ask for better defense than that the first half."
The Yellow Jackets had several key players who played on both sides of the ball. Frye feels his team was able to wear the 'Jackets down and use their own conditioning to their advantage.
 |
"Our conditioning was a major factor late in the ball game," he said. "It was really a factor and that's a big thing we've worked on. We know we're young and we know we've got some new people to plug in. We can't do much about that. But we certainly can do a lot about conditioning, a lot about heart and a lot about playing hard.
"The big thing was we just told our kids that we have to come after them. Really, that's what we did in the second half," he said.
"We just decided to come off the ball and quit messing around with formation adjustments and different blocking schemes. We wanted to just play St. Marys' football."
 |
Individually on the night, Lamb was the Riders' leading rusher, carrying the ball 15 times for 78 yards and one touchdown. Huttis rushed for 46 yards on 11 carries with one score while Ken Williams carried the ball 10 times for 43 yards. St. Marys had 44 offensive plays for 176 yards.
For Sidney, VanTilburgh amassed 177 yards on 23 carries. Ray Waters had 11 rushes for 59 yards. Quarterback Ben Raterman completed 3-of-6 passes for 30 yards while having two passes picked off by Homan and Brewer. Sidney had 51 offensive plays for 272 yards of offense.
The Riders are now 1-0 on the season and will travel to Van Wert next week to take on Jeff Hood's Cougars in the Western Buckeye League opener; Van Wert was victorious in their season opener Friday night, downing Bryan, 16-7.
 |
This site is best viewed at 800x600 resolution with:
or 
Click above for free downloads.
fin