Western dominates St. Paul

NORWALK — Total domination. From the first play of the game, the Western Reserve football team left zero doubt. In the first of several big games in the Firelands Conference, the Roughriders scored on all five possessions in the first half of a 46-14 win Friday night over host St. Paul at Contractors Stadium. "We played really, really well and I'm proud of our guys tonight," Western head coach Ty Stevenson said. "We won this game with our heart and soul, which is our offensive line and Landyn Wiegel. They did a great job. "Those guys showed up all week, practiced hard … it was one of the best games we've played all around in my eight years here." From the start, the Roughriders (4-1, 2-0) set the tone on the ground. They opened with a 9-play, 73-yard scoring drive that took nearly the first four minutes of the game. The big play was a 32-yard pass from Colton Meagrow to Dom Edwards, which set up a 2-yard TD run by Wiegel. The run failed for a 6-0 lead at the 8:02 mark. After allowing one first down on defense, Western got the ball back at its own 41 and went right back to work. Wiegel continued to churn out yardage, but two penalties forced Western into a second-and-32 at its own 30. It didn't matter. Meagrow found Tyler Wood for 19 yards, then connected with Wiegel for 13 yards on third-and-13 and a new set of downs. That set up Meagrow for a 20-yard TD pass up the left sideline to Brexton Fraelich to make it 12-0 with 28 seconds left in the quarter. The 2-point try again failed. St. Paul (2-3, 1-1) then fumbled on its second play of the ensuing series, and Tyler Cooper was on the football for the 'Riders at the St. Paul 39. Five straight runs from Wiegel covered that distance, the last from the 4 where he shook off two St. Paul defenders on the scoring run. He then added the 2-point run with 9:29 left in the half. The Flyers finally answered on their next drive. They moved 60 yards in six plays, with the highlight coming when Grant Kuhnle found Levi Ropsert for a 37-yard pass to the Western 8. On third-and-goal, freshman Casey Fries took a direct snap and followed his block for a 3-yard scoring run. Nate Griffin's PAT cut the deficit to 20-7 with 6:44 left in the half. But the St. Paul defense were unable to get a stop. Western quickly moved 66 yards in just four plays, the last in the form of a 38-yard TD run by Wiegel through the middle of the St. Paul defense. The conversion failed, but it was 26-7 with 5:10 left in the half. And the 'Riders weren't done. St. Paul went three-and-out, and Western marched 41 yards over seven time-consuming plays. They used nearly all of the 3:52 left in the half when Wiegel scored on a 3-yard run with 34 seconds left in the half. He punctuated his first half performance by adding the conversion run for a 34-7 lead. "Some nights it feels like you tip-toe around, but we came out and played very good football right away from the start," Stevenson said. "Very happy for my guys." In the second half, the 'Riders added two more touchdowns. Meagrow found Cooper Roe for a 7-yard TD pass with 2:43 left in the third, and Wiegel scored his fifth TD on a 2-yard run with 10:54 left in the game. St. Paul got a late score when Fries scored his second TD, a 1-yard run with 4:17 left in the game. "Credit Coach Stevenson and his team for playing a great game from the very first drive," St. Paul head coach Chris Doughty said. "They outcoached us, they were more physical than us, and they outplayed us, and they played with a lot of desire. "I would have liked to have seen a little bit more out of us tonight." Wiegel ran 27 times for 169 yards and the five TDs. Meagrow as a perfect 12-of-12 passing for 138 yards, with Fraelich catching three passes for 39 yards and the score. "Colton played a really good game again," Stevenson said. "He was able to spread the ball around and followed his offensive line." Casey Fries ran eight times for 35 yards and both TDs for the Flyers. Kuhnle was 5-of-14 passing for 71 yards, with Rospert catching four of those for 57 yards. Western hosts Monroeville (3-2, 2-0) next Friday. St. Paul heads to New London (2-3, 0-2). "Monroeville is a really good team again, so we have to come back with another strong week of practice," Stevenson said.