St. Paul rally comes up just short

NORWALK — Just a play here or there. Though it didn't feel that way for nearly three quarters, the St. Paul football team made one key mistake too many. The Flyers trailed visiting Huron by a 31-7 score with just over a minute left in the third quarter of Saturday's season opener at Contractors Stadium. But after a big shift in momentum, St. Paul had pulled within 31-28 with 3:08 left in the game. However, the Tigers were able to convert on their final drive to hold off the Flyers for the win at the Warren C. Whitney Complex. St. Paul had two key turnovers that set up two Huron touchdowns off short fields in the first and third quarters in the loss. "Our mistakes early, the turnovers, some defensive breakdowns … we didn't get off the field with some stops when we needed to," St. Paul head coach John Livengood said. "That got us to a 31-7 deficit. "As coaches, we'll focus on the mistakes we made and what we need to correct," he added. "But my focus right now is on how hard our kids played and competed. The way they didn't give up. The way they played in the second half, they should believe if we played that team again next week, they'd win." After the Tigers scored following a St. Paul fumble at the Huron 48 with 4:45 left in the third quarter, the deficit reached 31-7. The only question at that point was how big the margin of defeat was going to be. The Flyers then answered with an 8-play, 67-yard drive, as standout Ben Burger ran 33 yards to set up a 16-yard touchdown run three plays later. The Ashton Stang extra point made it a 31-14 game with 52 seconds left in the third quarter. After just missing an onside kick attempt, the Flyers then got their first three-and-out stop of the game on defense. St. Paul took over at its own 27, then moved 10 plays to cover 73 yards with Burger scoring on a 12-yard run with 7:04 left in the game. The extra point made it 31-21. The Tigers were again forced off the field in three plays, as a key sack to start the drive put them seven yards behind the line of scrimmage. That allowed the Flyers to take over at their own 43. Nine run plays between Burger, Jack Stieber and Josh Pocos resulted in a 2-yard TD by Burger with 3:08 left in the game. Just like that, the deficit was just 31-28 with three-plus minutes and two timeouts to work with. However, after recovering another onside kick at their 49, the Tigers immediately got a 28-yard pass and catch from Cody Scroggins to Beau Harkelroad to the St. Paul 27. Faced with a third-and-4 at the Flyers' 17 with just under two minutes left, Harkelroad then rushed for six yards to allow Huron to run out the clock. "I think it starts with, we didn't have a scrimmage before tonight," Huron head coach Sam Hohler said of the final 12-plus minutes. "We had just been practicing against each other. So for some of our kids, this is their first real action — and St. Paul fights to the bitter end no matter what. "That's just how Coach Livengood teams are. Our older kids knew that, but some of our newer kids out there tonight didn't," he added. "I think some of our kids grew up some tonight. A little jittery down the stretch there, but you have to execute when you get the opportunities, or St. Paul will make you pay." Huron opened the game with a 39-yard field goal from standout Cam Manner at the 9:06 mark of the first quarter. Ironically, the kick hit the right upright, but went through — a key three points given the final score. After forcing a St. Paul punt, the Tigers moved 58 yards in six plays, as Scroggins found Harkelroad streaking across the middle for a 29-yard TD pass at the 4:34 mark of the first quarter. The Flyers appeared to be responding with a solid drive of their own. But on a third-and-5 from the Huron 39, Drew Kuhnle was intercepted by Andrew Delaney, who returned it all the way to the St. Paul 16. When it appeared the Flyers may again force a field goal attempt on third-and-16 from the 22, Scroggins found Dawson Bowen, who made a nice play to extend the ball into the end zone for the 22-yard TD catch on the final play of the quarter. Manner connected on the PAT, and the Flyers were reeling with a 17-0 deficit. "No doubt the two turnovers hurt them, because they want to chew clock and keep the ball away from us, and it gave us pretty good field position," Hohler said. St. Paul then used the first 8:44 of the second quarter to cover 65 yards in 18 plays, with Jack Stieber bulling in from a yard at the 3:16 mark. With the clock ticking under a final minute before halftime, Huron got arguably its play of the game from inside the St. Paul 5. Scroggins looked like he was going to be sacked for a significant loss, but scrambled out of it, then outran two St. Paul defenders to just reach the pylon for a 4-yard TD with 17 seconds left in the half. The PAT gave the Tigers a 24-7 lead headed into halftime. After totaling 125 yards of offense in the first half, the Flyers ran for 210 yards and three TDs in the second half. "We made some adjustments and found ways to get Ben and Josh the ball more to the outside," Livengood said. "When we were able to get to that edge, it opened things back up inside. "We were still picking up tough yards, but things really started to open up for us on the outside." Burger unofficially ran for 183 yards and 3 TDs on 33 attempts for St. Paul. Stieber added 62 yards and a TD on 17 attempts and Pocos had 47 yards on 17 rushes. Things get no easier for St. Paul in Week 2, as the Flyers visit Edison (1-0) on Aug. 25 in the first regular season meeting in 38 years between the two nearby schools. "There are a lot of things we need to continue to look at and work to get better with, but just really proud of our kids' efforts," Livengood said. "They could have tucked tail and did the opposite, and put themselves in position to have a chance to win the game." Huron 17 7 7 0 — 31 St. Paul 0 7 7 14 — 28 Scoring HUR — Cam Manner 39 field goal HUR — Beau Harkelroad 29 pass from Cody Scroggins (Manner kick) HUR — Dawson Bowen 22 pass from Scroggins (Manner kick) STP — Jack Stieber 1 run (Ashton Stang kick) HUR — Scroggins 4 run (Manner kick) HUR — Harkelroad 12 pass from Scroggins (Manner kick) STP — Ben Burger 16 run (Stang kick) STP — Burger 12 run (Stang kick) STP — Burger 2 run (Stang kick)