OLIVESBURG — Ben Burger and his St. Paul teammates swung for the fences Friday night.
Burger scored on a 58-yard run and hauled in a 60-yard touchdown pass and the Flyers rumbled to a 33-7 Firelands Conference win over Crestview on Senior Night at Scott Bailey Memorial Field.
St. Paul (4-4, 4-0) had four scoring plays of 20 or more yards.
Josh Pocos rumbled for a 64-yard touchdown in the first quarter and Ashton Stang caught a 22-yard TD pass from quarterback Drew Kuhnle late in the second quarter.
“Our kids gave great effort, especially in the second half,” Crestview coach Steve Haverdill said. “It was a big play here or there. We had a couple missed assignments and a couple missed assignments is all it takes against a good team.”
St. Paul’s lone sustained drive of the first half came on the first possession of the game.
The Flyers took over at their 20-yard line after a touchback and marched 80 yards in 2:21. Pocos capped the drive with a 7-yard run and Nate Griffin’s PAT made it 7-0.
On St. Paul’s next possession, Pocos broke free for a 64-yard run on fourth-and-one and the Flyers had a 14-0 margin midway through the first quarter.
St. Paul added two more scores in the second period. Burger scored on a 58-yard run after a Crestview turnover on downs with 7:20 to play. Stang’s 22-yard TD grab late in the half came after St. Paul’s Lando Fries intercepted a pass near midfield.
“They made us pay for our mistakes,” Haverdill said. “They are an experienced team — they have 15 or 16 seniors — and they are very disciplined.”
Trailing 27-0 at the half, the Cougars (3-5, 2-2) came out swinging in the third quarter.
Crestview cut the St. Paul lead to 27-6 on Ayden Reymer’s 31-yard run with 9:22 to play in the period.
Crestview forced the Flyers to punt on their first possession of the second half and the Cougars again marched into St. Paul territory, but Fries short-circuited the drive when he forced a fumble that was recovered by Kuhnle.
“We had drives. We had spurts where we played well,” Haverdill said. “We took the second-half kickoff and went down and scored right away. Then we forced a punt and marched down there again, but we had a turnover.
“You just can’t get back into a game against a good team when you have turnovers.”
The Flyers iced it early in the fourth wen Kuhnle hooked up with Burger on a 60-yard scoring strike.
The Cougars slipped two games behind St. Paul in the FC title chase with two games to play. Crestview is still in the thick of the Division VI, Region 22 playoff hunt.
“The conference is out of reach as of now, but you never know what could happen,” Haverdill said. “Our focus now is on (Week 9 opponent) Western Reserve. We will have our hands full, but we’ll get ready to go.”
