FOOTBALL: Schwieterman leads St. Paul on Wilde ride

On the biggest stage, the St. Paul Flyers erased the dominance of Delphos St. John’s and the Midwest Athletic Conference at the Division VI level, and it did so in grand fashion.

Ten years ago the area was abuzz about “The Catch” for Perkins’ 1999 Division III state championship. Today, that local legend has company: “The Drive.”

“Being 97 yards away and down four points, I just felt like with the determination of our kids, we had a shot,” St. Paul coach John Livengood said. “It’s their personality this year.”

The Flyers needed a goal-line stand with 3:22 left to set up the winning drive, much like the theatrics for Perkins, which denied a fourth-and-1 with 46 seconds left to set up its winning catch.

Quarterback Eric Schwieterman was 2 of 2 passing — 36- and 37-yard completions to Justin Wilde — on the drive for 72 yards and ran eight times for 18 yards, including the game-winning touchdown with five seconds remaining.

“He’s definitely one of the better one’s we’ve ever faced,” St. John’s linebacker Joel Pohlman said of Schwieterman. “He had all the weapons and made things extremely difficult.”

St. John’s coach Todd Schulte talked about the final drive.

“They made the plays and we didn’t,” he said. “It was an impressive drive and I can’t remember if that’s ever happened to us or not.

“They stayed pretty calm and poised out there and weren’t in a huge hurry and had some timeouts. They had to do what they were doing all night there, and it worked.”

Livengood talked about players knowing their roles at the right time.

“We talked since the beginning of the season in August about each kid stepping up to be a leader, and everyone else taking their turn doing it,” he said. “You never know when that one play will happen where you’re needed to step up, and you saw that tonight. 

“Every kid contributed and played a part. I’d like to think that’s what our program is about. I couldn’t be prouder of these kids, they are so determined.”

Schwieterman took things as the St. John’s defense gave it to him.

“I was just trying to find where the lanes were,” he said. “Sometimes they would be at the end, but their ends would tighten to the middle real fast. It wasn’t really pre-snap reads, just something that kind of happened.”

Said Livengood of the final play call, “We took it out a gap wider. We thought we may have a little better chance with a double team. We talked to the kids that there was seven seconds left in the state championship, and it came down to just this one play.

“They were able to get it in.”

n NOTES: Schwieterman’s 187 passing yards allowed him to finish as the all-time career yardage leader at St. Paul with 4,377 yards ... Kicker Jim Roth’s six points Saturday gave him exactly 100 points for the season, making him unofficially the third player in Ohio history to reach the milestone ...St. Paul’s 678 points scored in 15 games is unofficially the fourth-highest total in Ohio history ...Schwieterman’s 73-yard touchdown run that was a Division VI championship game record gives St. Paul three of the seven title game records for longest plays, joining longest kick return (Jordan Wangler, 88 yards, 1999) and longest field goal (Aidan McDonnell, 35 yards, 1999). ... The victory allowed St. Paul to keep the trend of avoiding dubious history; No team has ever lost it’s first four appearances in the 38-year history of the championship game.