St. Marys win streak ends at Huntington

HUNTINGDON – After opening the season with three straight victories at home, the St. Marys Flying Dutchmen took to the road Friday night and found that winning away from the friendly confines of Dutch Country Stadium is hard.

The Huntington Bearcats used a bend but don’t break defense and got a boost from its special teams at a crucial time in the game to hand the Dutchmen their first setback of the year 17-6 at War Vet’s Memorial Stadium in Huntington.

The Dutch offense was able to move the ball in between the 20s consistently all night, but once inside the red zone the Bearcat defense dug in and stopped St. Marys four times.

St. Marys’ defense was also superb on the night.  Huntington was able to mount two scoring drives, but both started deep in Dutch territory. 

The Dutch took the opening kickoff and were forced to punt after a three and out from their 8-yard line.  The Bearcats began with great field position at the Dutch 35-yard line following a 16-yard return.  Huntington then marched 17 yards in five plays to the Dutch 18 where the defense held on a third-and-3 forcing a field goal attempt.  Bearcat kicker Andrew Hallahan nailed the 35 yarder putting the Cats up 3-0 with 8:34 to go in the first quarter.

St. Marys then drove three times inside the Huntington 20-yard line only to come up empty handed.  And following another punt from deep in their end, the Bearcats got the ball just before the half at the Dutch 26-yard line. 

Houston Riley finished off a 9-play drive running off right tackle from seven yards out to put Huntington up 10-0 heading into the locker room.

The Dutch finally got on the scoreboard in the third quarter, but it was the defense that did the scoring.  Linebacker Kyle Schneider tipped a screen pass up into the air to himself and then rumbled 35 yards for a touchdown. The PAT was no good making the score 10-6 and breathing life into St. Marys.

That new life however was short lived.  On the ensuing kickoff, Nathan Mykut grabbed the kick and ran straight up the middle of field 85 yards to paydirt.  Hallahan nailed the extra point and the Bearcats were back up 17-6.

Neither team mounted of a scoring threat in the fourth quarter until St. Marys got the ball one last time with just over three minutes to play on its own 16.  Riding the arm of senior Greg Simchick and the sure hands of sophomore Justin Quiggle, the Dutchmen drove down to the Bearcat 6-yard line with 17 seconds left.  But on third down, Simchick was intercepted at the goal line by Sean Houck to end the game.

Kevin Hoy led all rushers in the game, carrying the ball 26 times for 117 yards.  Simchick finished the night 8 of 16 for 61 yards and threw 2 interceptions.  Quiggle hauled in 4 passes for 54 yards, all on the last drive.

St. Marys, (3-1, 2-1 MAC), hosts Penns Valley next Friday night at Dutch Country Stadium. 

Game Notes:  The Dutchmen held Huntington to just 96 total yards of offense…Conversely, St. Marys gained 257 yards of total offense…Hoy has now rushed for over 100 yards in 3 of the 4 games this season…Next week is homecoming for the Dutch…Following next week’s games, St. Marys next 4 games are all on the road.

Scoring:

                        1          2          3          4          F

St. Marys         0          0          6          0          6

Huntington      3          7          7          0          17

1^st – 8:34  H    Andrew Hallahan 35 yard Field Goal                                                           3-0

2^nd – :17   H     Houston Riley 7 yd td run, Hallahan PAT good                                10-0

3^rd – 5:15 SM  Kyle Schneider 35 yd int return for td, pat no good                          10-6

         5:02  H   Nathan Mykut 85 yd kickoff return for td, Hallahan PAT good       17-6