FOOTBALL: Defense dominates St. Paul's win

Grove City Christian coach Clyde Lucas and his Eagles were making their first trip to a state semifinal Saturday night against St. Paul at Ashland Community Stadium.

The fourth-year program got a rude welcome — and wake-up call — by a St. Paul defense that thoroughly dominated the game in every aspect possible of the Flyers’ 52-7 victory.

“That’s some northern Ohio football right there... They introduced themselves quite well,” Lucas said of St. Paul. “They had excellent speed and are clearly well-coached and disciplined. They simply overwhelmed us with their speed and execution. We thought we had a good game plan for them, but obviously we didn’t.”

The Eagles were limited to just 12 yards in the first half — including 7 net yards — and did not pick up their initial first down until less than four minutes remained in the game.

“We’ve played good all year, but tonight we wanted to set a tone early, and we were able to do that and shut them down,” St. Paul linebacker Mitchell Gross said. 

Gross led the team this season with 117 tackles and also had eight sacks entering the game.

“I felt like if we kept playing like we did on the first couple drives, they weren’t going to get too much on us.”

Saturday night’s win was the eighth time this season the first-team defense did not allow a point, and the fourth time they did not allow a first down.

“It’s definitely a plus heading into a state championship game to hold a team like that to very little yards and no first downs,” said Dan Tracht, a starting defensive back. “It was a confidence booster for a defense that has been playing really well for a while now. Hopefully we keep it up for one more game.”

As was the case all season, the game blew open when the defense gave the St. Paul offense that averaged 46.3 points per game in the first 13 games a short field to work with.

The offense started drives at the Eagles 10 and 24-yard lines following second quarter interceptions from Brian Roberts and Brian Griffin.

“It makes it a lot easier on offense when your getting a short field every time, and you can build momentum off of everything you do,” St. Paul senior quarterback and safety Eric Schwieterman said. “When you get a stop and force a turnover, it helps a lot.”

Tracht talked about what the defense has been able to do right all season to reach the title game.

“Coaches put us in good schemes and good positions, we just go out and execute it,” he said. “We rep it every day in practice and have a determination to not let the other team get going, and to get our offense on the field. We feel if we can get three and out’s consistently, we’re in great shape.”

Schwieterman was asked about the confidence level of the Flyers entering the championship tilt with Delphos St. John, a team from the Midwest Athletic Conference that has lost just one Division VI playoff game since 1997 — including two wins over the Flyers for the title in 1997 and 1999.

“We are one of the last two teams in the state,” Schwieterman said. “So we have to be here for some reason. You have to be confident that your there.”