By DAVID STILWELL
The Evening Leader

St. Marys turned a potential blowout into a football game Friday night at Skip Baughman Stadium, but eventually ran out of water to douse the red hot Celina offense.

The Bulldogs rolled up nearly 500 yards of total offense on its way to an emotion-charged 38-20 victory in the annual battle of the lake.

On the second play from scrimmage of the second half, Celina running back Aaron Strable busted up the middle and galloped 53 yards to paydirt giving the 'Dogs a 25-7 lead over a Roughrider team that had failed to gain a first down on its last six possessions and hadn't been across midfield since the first quarter.

St. Marys responded with one of its best drives of the season, marching 65 yards on 13 plays. Designated powerback Joe Young capped things off with a one-yard dive.

"On the positive side, we didn't quit tonight," St. Marys coach Doug Frye said. "I'm not pleased with the final results, but some of these kids are starting to realize the effort needed to play Rider football."

And it didn't stop there.

After a rare three-and-out from Celina, the Riders were back in business and driving again. Junior fullback Ken Williams, who led the second half reawakening with some hard-nosed running, gained 17 yards on first down. Three plays later, facing fourth and two, the Riders had Young in the backfield, who for the second time in the evening became the designated decoy, as quarterback John Meinerding faked a hand-off up the middle and pitched to Bob Huttis, who appeared to streak down the sideline for a 32-yard touchdown.

The officials ruled Huttis had stepped out on the nine, but it didn't matter. Two plays later Andy Slone connected with Huttis from six yards out on a halfback pass. The Riders went for two in an attempt to narrow the deficit to a field goal, but Meinerding's run came up short, and Celina's lead was 25-20 with most of a quarter to play.

"I wasn't surprised," Celina Coach Jerry Harris said of the Rider comeback. "It's like I said, St. Marys is a good football team, and they are just a hair away from being a great team.

"We've had trouble being consistant all year," Harris added. "On offense and defense. One minute we look great, and the next we look terrible."

Now with their backs up against the wall, the Bulldogs responded on their next drive. After a long run was called back by a holding penalty, Trent Dysert hit mark Adams with a key third down completion. On the next play Strable broke the line of scrimmage into a wide open secondary, and rambled 37 yards for his second touchdown of the half.

The Riders failed to move the ball on their next possession, and punted with 5:09 to play. A 52-yard run by Dysert set up the game-clinching touchdown, as Adams plunged in from two yards out with 3:17 left.

Dysert, one of the WBL's top players, came as advertised. The senior signal caller rushed for 173 yards on 16 carries and threw for 196 yards, completing 11 of 16.

How do you stop him?

"I'm not answering that," Harris said. "We've got to play three more teams that would like to know the answer to that."

Frye's not sure there is an answer.

"He's very difficult to defense," Frye said. "We tried to show him a lot of looks, because if you sit back in the same defense, he'll just pick you apart.

"I though our defensive coaches did a good job with the X's and O's, but when it came right down to it, we didn't break tham down and tackle very well... And let's face it, athlete-for-athlete their skilled people are better than ours."

St. Marys scored first in the game, when Meinerding faked a hand-off to Young on a short yardage situation and rolled out into a wide open field. However, about 30 yards down field the ball slipped out of his hands.

It didn't matter though as Meinerding completed a 19-yard touchdown pass to Jason Homan three plays later to put the Riders up 7-0 on Kurt Kill's extra point.

Celina answered with a 12-play scoring drive as Dysert scored on a one-yard run early in the second quarter. The PAT from Highley failed, as the riders hung on to the lead, but not for long.

On the 'Dogs next play from scrimmage, Dysert side-stepped a few Riders at the line of scrimmage and then out-sprinted the rest for a 63-yard run.

The Bulldogs made it 18-7 late in the first half on a 44-yard catch and run by Chad Highley.

"I think the key in the first half was that our offense didn't control the clock like we needed to," Frye said. "We didn't get it done. We're going to have to keep visiting the weight room."

St. Marys finished with 252 yards of total offense, which included a balanced rushing attack led by Huttis with 60 yards, Williams with 56 and Slone with 41.

The Riders are now 3-4 overall and 2-4 in the WBL. The road to a winning season will go through Defiance next week and then return home against Wapak and O-G. Celina saw its mark go to 6-1 (5-1), as the Bulldogs appear to be heading for a season-ending show-down at Kenton for all the marbles.