Timely mistakes cost St. Paul

OLIVESBURG — One to many mistakes. The St. Paul football team had every opportunity to come up with a critical Firelands Conference road win Friday against host Crestviw. But the Cougars scored scored twice on fourth down passes in the first half and intercepted the Flyers in the end zone late in the half as well. Even still, St. Paul had the ball down a touchdown and converted a long pass, only to be called for holding, resulting in a safety in the end zone to secure the 30-21 victory at Scott Bailey Field. "They made the big plays when they needed to and we didn't," St. Paul head coach Chris Doughty said after his team fell to 3-4 overall and 2-2 in the FC. "The kids battled hard and gave great effort, but when you make mistakes against a good team, you get exposed, and they exposed ours tonight." The first half came down to three critical plays for the Flyers as they trailed 21-14. First, the Cougars (5-2, 4-0) beat the Flyers on a fourth-and-8 pass from Liam Kuhn to Karter Goon for a 21-yard touchdown pass in the back left corner of the end zone for the first score of the game. Keith Abshire's extra point made it 7-0 with 3:50 left in the first quarter. The Flyers answered with an 8-play, 87-yard drive that was capped when freshman Casey Fries spun off of two would-be tacklers and found the right sideline for a 31-yard TD run. Nate Griffin's extra point tied the game up at 7-7 with 30 seconds left in the opening quarter. The Cougars responded with a 49-yard TD run by Kuhn with 10 minutes left in the half to make it 14-7. But St. Paul again came right back with a 71-yard drive over seven plays. Nick Pocos cutback off two of his blockers, then stepped his way through three Crestview defenders on a twisting and turning 19-yard TD run. Griffin's PAT tied things up with 6:35 left in the half. From there, the rest of the half swung back to the Cougars in a big way. St. Paul's defense forced its lone three-and-out of the half, and took over at midfield with 4:52 left in the second quarter. The Flyers converted a 4th-and-4 from the Crestview 44 when Pocos picked up five yards, then Kuhnle found Landon Fries for an 18-yard pass. A late hit penalty put the Flyers in first-and-goal at the Crestview 9-yard line with 1:10 left in the half. But the next play saw Kuhnle get intercepted by Kuhn in the end zone. Crestview then went right down the field, and this time, a fourth-down TD pass was even more devastating. Kuhn found Ayden Reymer on a 26-yard scoring strike with just 12 seconds left in the half to give the Cougars the lead back a 21-14. Crestview then used a time-consuming 14-play, 75-yard scoring drive to start the second half. The Cougars also converted a fourth down on the drive before Ayden Reymer scored on a 4-yard run for a 28-14 lead with 4:23 left in the quarter. St. Paul countered with a 12-play, 69-yard scoring drive. The Flyers converted three third downs before Kuhnle scored on a QB sneak with 11:08 left in the game for a 28-21 deficit. The Flyers then got another big three-and-out to get the ball back, and quickly picked up two first downs. But Kuhnle was hit on a blindside blitz and the ball came free, and the Cougars recovered at the St. Paul 47 with 7:15 left in the game. It appeared the Cougars were going to run the clock all the way down or score a TD. They were at the St. Paul 1 with just over two minutes left when they fumbled. The Flyers recovered, but needed to go 99 yards in 2:07 with only one timeout. The Flyers appeared to get a big play to keep the game alive when Kuhnle found Landon Fries for 18 yards to the Crestview 22. That's when the holding penalty was called on the Flyers in the end zone, resulting in a safety. Pocos ran 13 times for 97 yards and the TD for St. Paul. Casey Fries ran nine times for 75 yards and a score. Kuhnle was 7-of-12 passing for 84 yards. "Our kids have done a great job of continuing to improve all season, so I know they are going to come with the right mindset on Monday," Doughty said. "We have to get back to work. That's all we can do. It's Week 8 and there is still a lot to play for. "The season is far from over, but we have a lot of things we have to work on. There were some good takeaways, but obviously you want to come out with the win and we didn't do that tonight."