By ANGIE DIERINGER
The Evening Leader

VAN WERT - With a huge second half and an offense which tallied 410 yards of total offense, the Van Wert Cougars handed the St. Marys Roughriders their first loss of the season and took the WBL opener in fine fashion, 31-7. The Cougars gained 320 of those 410 yard through the air behind an outstanding passing performance from quarterback Jared Loughrie.

"Jared was really on," said Van Wert coach Jeff Hood. "His receivers caught the ball well. Early in the game, we dropped a few we thought we should have caught but his timing was right and he saw the field well."

The Cougars scored 25-unanswered second half points while the Riders could not generate any offense or get the big gainer when they needed it.

St. Marys had a chance to take the early lead but a miscue inside the five yardline by fullback Josh Lamb ended the drive and any chance of a Rider score. St. Marys began the drive on their own 25 yardline and by virtue of a fake punt to Aaron Seewer, a big unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the Van Wert coaching staff and a Van Wert facemask call, the Blue and Gold found themselves with a first-and-10 at the Van Wert 14. But a good defensive effort by the Cougars forced the Rider fumble and ended the threat.

The Riders' defense held the Cougars though and thought they had forced them into a punt situation. But with a fourth-and-eight from their own endzone, Hood made a gutsy-call and signaled for a fake punt of his own which his team executed perfectly. Punter Marshall Keith, standing in the endzone, found receiver Devon Pollock completely uncovered with a 25-yard pass for the first down.

Two plays later, the Cougars found themselves the beneficiaries of a very generous pass interference call which netted them 30 yards. They used it as a springboard to take a 6-0 lead early in the second quarter when Loughrie connected with Ryan Swank on a 9-yard TD strike. The PAT failed and Van Wert had to settle for the six-point advantage.

But the Riders rallied back and it appeared as if they had turned the momentum back in their favor, scoring with 10 seconds left in the half.

Rider quarterback John Meinerding hooked up with receiver Bob Huttis on a fourth-and-goal from the three to tie the game at six. Kurt Kill added the point after and St. Marys held a slim 7-6 lead at the break and it appeared the tide was turning.

The Cougars quickly changed that in the second half when Loughrie hooked up with Swank once again, this time on a 65-yard touchdown pass. Rider Terry Halko made a nice play to knock down the two-point conversion pass but the Cougars took a 12-7 lead and never looked back.

"I thought Van Wert did a great job," said Rider coach Doug Frye. "Coach Hood had a great game plan and executed it well. I thought his kids played awful hard for him. I thought they did an exceptional job in the second half. My hat's off to Van Wert."

The Cougars extended their lead to 19-7 when Loughrie took it in from the one and then went up 25-7 when Pollock picked off a Meinerding pass and ran it back 27 yards for the score. Van Wert's final score of the night came late in the game when Steve Sowers capped things off with a two-yard run and a 31-7 final.

"Frankly, I'm embarrassed with our effort," a disappointed Frye said. "I'm embarrassed with our performance. We need to get a lot better if we are going to regain the form we used to have."

The Rider offense could never really get on track. They tallied just 164 yards of total offense, 118 of those coming on the ground. In contrast, the Cougars totaled 410 yards of offense, 370 coming in the air.

"They did exactly what we anticipated and exactly what we worked on all week," Frye said. "Football is a game of emotion. If you play with it, you are usually successful and if you play without it, most likely you are unsuccessful."

On the night, Loughrie was 15-of-25 passing for 305 yards. He threw two touchdown passes and was not picked off. Swank caught four passes for l00 yards, including a 65-yard score. Joel Penton had two catches for 50 yards while Mitch Gearhart caught three passes for 45 yards.

"We thought we could keep them off balance enough," Hood said of his offense. "Jared carried us because we didn't ram it down their throats (on the ground)."

Gearhart was the Cougars' leading rusher with 50 yards on 13 carries. Sowers had 10 carries for 34 yards.

For the Riders, Lamb was the leading rusher with 52 yards on 10 carries. Huttis carried the ball for 26 yards on 10 carries while Ken Williams had 17 yards on nine carries.

In the receiving department, Huttis caught three passes for 38 yards and one TD. Nick Coleman and James Mabry each hauled down one pass for four yards.

"I think we had trouble with effort in the second half," Frye said. "I think it is two-fold. I think it is a credit to Van Wert and a detriment to us that we didn't play with the proper heart that would represent the community of St. Marys the way it should be represented.

"The only positive I see is that we have another game next week." the Rider coach added.

"They are a good football team," Hood said of St. Marys. "Our whole thing was to box them and not give them the big play. Our defense was physical enough and stepped up. We had 11 people seven yards from the football.

"Our kids did a nice job controlling the situation," he added. "It was a good team effort. We had a lot of people contribute. It's been since the 1980s since we've beaten St. Marys two years in a row." Van Wert recorded a 6-0 win over the Riders last season.

The Riders, now 1-1 on the year and 0-1 in the Western Buckeye League, travel to Shawnee next Friday. The Cougars stand at 2-0 overall and 1-0 in the loop.