By DAVID STILWELL
The Evening Leader

If you're going to win ugly, it might as well be on Halloween.

St. Marys overcame some ghoulish special teams play with another strong second-half performance and a 28-21 victory over Wapakoneta Friday night at Skip Baughman Stadium.

Actually, neither coach was thrilled with the way their team executed, but in a contest of see=sawing momentum, it was the Roughrider defense that took charge in the second half.

"First of all, I want to commend Wapakoneta and Coach (Darrel) Jones. They played real hard and I want to commend them for that," St. Marys Coach doug Frye said. "But we played a horrible first half... We didn't play with a lot of emotion, and we had mental breakdowns on offense and defense."

With the score tied 21-21 in the second half, and the Redskins driving, a muffed handoff was recovered by the Riders on a play that seemed to seal the momentum with St. Marys for the rest of the game.

"It's simple," Jones said. "For the second straight week we played very hard, but at the same time made mental mistakes at crucial times in the game. That's been our story all year. We've been unable to execute when the game is on the line, and that's what beat this football team tonight."

The Roughriders' best possession all night was their first one. Having success with the trap play to Eli Holsinger, St. Marys went 64 yards on 15 plays, consumeing nearly seven minutes off the clock in the first quarter.

Although Holsinger carried the ball 10 times on the drive, quarterback John Meinerding capped the drive as he rolled right and found Jason Homan in the end zone from 16 yards out.

Wapakoneta's first score came courtesy of a St. Marys roughing-the-kicker penalty that gave the 'Skins new life. Wapak then converted on a fourth-and-one and four plays later on fourth-and-six, quarterback Dustin Dobie rolled out and hit Jarett Kohlrieser on a crossing pattern to knot the score at seven.

Eleven seconds later St. Marys answered as Bob Huttis returned Damian Mason's kickoff 95 yards to set a school record and give the Riders a 14-7 lead.

The previous record for the longest kickoff return was 86 yards by Craig Huwer in 1971 against Van Wert.

However, Wapak answered with a little return magic of its own.

The Riders failed to capitalize on a Redskin interception, and punted to Todd Presar, who sprinted right through the middle of the Roughrider defense 73 yards to paydirt to tie the score with 3:43 left in the half.

After a squibbed kick, and two completed passes, it appeared as though the Riders were in good position to to break the tie before the half, but a fumble at the Wapak 29 gave the Redkins an opportunity instead.

With 1:54 left and onme timeout, the 'Skins went to work, completing a key third down play near midfield. Dobie then rolled right and cut back against a St. Marys defense that over-pursued the play and raced 46 yards, stepping into the end zone with 8.7 seconds left in the half. Mason booted his 22nd consecutive PAT to give Wapak a 21-14 lead.

"I thought is was very important we score on our first possession of the second half to get the momentum back," Frye said.

With Wapak bottling up the running game, the Riders went to the air. Meinerding connected with Homan for a 29-yard gain, and then completed an 11-yard pass to Huttis, who was pushed out of bounds at the three. On the next play, Meinerding scored on a bootleg. Kurt Kill's extra point tied the game for the third time with 9:14 left in the third quarter.

The Redskins then played for some field position, exchanging punts, and getting the better end of it, taking over on the St. Marys 37. But two plays into the drive, Dobie was unable to complete a handoff and the Riders pounced on the loose ball.

Wapak would not cross midfield again, as the St. Marys defense held the 'Skins to 34 yards of total offense in the second half.

The Riders used a bit of trickery to set up the winning score. On fourth and six from the Wapak 32, Meinerding pitched to Slone who stepped back to pass, looking for Meinerding on a play that took forever to develop.

Wapak appeared to have the play sniffed out, as three Redskins followed Meinerding into the secondary. However, the St. Marys junior kept running and found an opening. Slone delivered a perfect pass for a 22-yard gain and a first down.

"That was just a great athletic play by John Meinerding to find an open spot," Frye said, "and Slone did a real nice job of getting the ball to him."

Three plays later, Meinerding scored on another bootleg run, this time from nine yards out with 4:34 left.

Wapak turned the ball over on downs on its next possession and St. Marys was able to run the clock out to raise its record to 5-4 overall and 4-4 in the WBL. The Redskins fall to 2-6 in teh league and 3-6 overall.

"I thought we did a real nice job in the second half," Frye concluded. "That should give us something to build on going into next week's game against Ottawa-Glandorf."

Holsinger finished with 79 yards on 24 carries to lead the St. Marys rushing attack. For the second straight week, Meinerding had an exceptional night throwing the ball, as he completed eight of nine passes for 94 yards.