Long trip, Edon passing game to test Flyers

Oct. 6—NORWALK — Much will feel the same, but a lot will be different.

One year ago, in a hastily scheduled game, the St. Paul football team outlasted Edon in a non-league thriller, 45-44, at Contractors Stadium in Norwalk. The Bombers threw 47 times for 516 yards and five touchdowns in the game.

Now, the Flyers (5-2) make the return trip two hours west to Edon (4-3) in a game that, while it wasn't scheduled five days in advance, was also a late-summer addition as well.

And though star quarterback Drew Gallehue — the 2021 All-Ohio Offensive Player of the Year in Division VII — is now at NCAA Division II Ohio Dominican University, the Bombers are still going to sling it under head coach Bob Olwin.

The Bombers average 32 pass attempts per game this season. All told, Edon returns three starters on offense and four on defense from last season's team that lost just to the Flyers in the regular season — and fell to eventual regional champion Lima Central Catholic in the third round of the state playoffs.

"A lot of new faces in the lineup for them, but it's the same type of thing," St. Paul head coach John Livengood said of Edon. "Really good receivers to throw the ball to, and a quarterback who does a really nice job of getting them the ball.

"The difference in quarterbacks is (Kyler) Sapp is a little more of a runner who will tuck it and go more. He runs the ball pretty well and also plays outside linebacker for them on defense."

Kyler Sapp is a 6-foot, 171-pound sophomore who has completed 138-of-227 pass attempts for 1,795 yards with 17 touchdowns and five interceptions this season.

His top targets are seniors Caden Nester (6-0, 192) and Carter Kiess (5-11, 134).

Nester has 48 catches for 635 yards and 5 TDs, and Kiess adds 38 catches for 568 yards and 7 TDs, while wingback Max Radabaugh (5-9, 147) adds 17 catches for 202 yards and 3 TDs.

In last year's game, Nester caught a 2-point conversion to give the Bombers a 28-21 lead, then a 9-yard TD pass to give his team a 35-28 lead in the loss to the Flyers.

Regardless of the returning talent, Livengood knows his secondary is going to be tested on virtually every play.

"Depending on the number of plays, they could see 40 passes thrown at them," he said. "Our secondary has made good strides, and I'm happy with that. The defense as a whole has made good strides over the last couple of weeks. Contain, pressure, secondary fill ... a lot of different things are going to come into play.

"We have to pressure, keep Sapp in the pocket ... a lot of things need to go with that and jive together. It's a big challenge."

The Bombers are coming off an easy 51-6 win over Hilltop. Sapp was 14-of-18 passing for 198 yards and 4 TDs, with Kiess catching three passes for 72 yards and 2 TDs. Wade Parrish (5-8, 146) ran three times for 44 yards and a TD.

Edon is 3-0 overall in the Toledo Area Athletic Conference and appear headed for a Week 10 winner-take-all league title matchup at Ottawa Hills (5-1). The Bombers enter this week as the No. 12 seed in Region 26.

The Bombers' schedule has been a mixed bag. Against teams above .500, the Bombers are 1-3, with the lone win against Northwood (4-3) on Sept. 9.

Edon's other three wins are against teams who are a combined 4-17 overall.

The Bombers enter Friday allowing 23.3 points per game on defense, and Livengood singled out sophomore defensive tackle Parker Kelley (5-11, 249) as a priority.

"He is their biggest kid out there and played as a freshman," he said. "He's kind of a disruptor, a big body in the middle who gets off the ball well. He is an experienced sophomore who played against us last year.

"They run a little bit of a different alignment on defense from last year," Livengood added. "They were mostly a 4-3 last year and they are more of a 5-3, 3-3-5 type look now. Their tackles like to cover up the guards pretty good, and they play games with their linebackers a bit.

"They are a bit more forcing unit heavy from last year, which is something we kind of expect to stop our run game, anyways."

St. Paul is averaging 31.9 points and 362.7 yards per game.

Quincey Crabbs leads the FC in rushing with 1,094 yards and 11 TDs on 151 attempts. Not far behind is junior Ben Burger, who is averaging 10.4 yards per carry with 938 yards and 14 TDs on 90 attempts.

Drew Kuhnle has thrown for 311 yards and 2 TDs, with AJ Meyer leading with 14 catches for 150 yards.

Defensively, Andy Meyer has 76 tackles (10 for loss) with two fumble recoveries. Crabbs has 70 tackles (15 for loss) with a sack and a fumble recovery, while AJ Meyer adds 55 tackles with an interception and eight pass break-ups.

In last week's 21-0 win at Western Reserve, St. Paul forced three turnovers in the red zone.

"I was really pleased to hold them to 90 yards rushing and 85 yards passing," Livengood said. "Western has a pretty good offense. They moved the ball on us between the 20s, but defensively, two people really stood out, AJ (Meyer) and Quincey. Even when he didn't make the tackle, Quincey disrupted things.

"AJ, we moved him to safety two weeks ago, and he has been everything we've wanted him to be there," he added. "He's a good defender, but he's been a great run stopper. On Western's first drive, he made most of the tackles. He's really playing special back there."

It also marked the fifth straight win for the Flyers, who are now up to fourth in the Region 25 playoff standings. They will host Crestview (7-0, 3-0) next Saturday for sole possession of first place in the Firelands Conference.

"The thing I was most proud of last week is we made those plays on defense," Livengood said. "We made those key plays that disrupted things and resulted in turnovers. It was a complimentary game where you had all three phases of the game playing decent — and we needed to do that to beat a team like Western."

Schedule notes

Friday's game will be the third meeting with Edon in four seasons. St. Paul hosted the Bombers in a 35-21 win in the first round of the Div. VII playoffs in 2019, which also served as the final game played on the natural grass surface at the Warren C. Whitney Complex.

With recent news that FC member New London will again play a junior varsity schedule in 2023, the Flyers have another long trip scheduled when they visit Fort Loramie in Week 7 next season.

Located in Shelby County, Fort Loramie is about 42 miles northwest of Dayton, and 20 miles east of the Ohio/Indiana state line.

The matchup will be a premier one as far as consistent winners in small-school Ohio football goes.

Fort Loramie started its football program in 2005. Its only losing season in 18 seasons came in 2021, and the Redskins still went 5-7, hosted and won a playoff game, then fell to eventual state champion Maria Stein Marion Local.

The Redskins made the state semifinals in 2018, and have consistently ran into Midwest Athletic Conference powerhouses in the playoffs — including an overtime loss to Marion Local in 2019.

Overall, Fort Loramie's average season is 8-4. Under Livengood, the Flyers average season in 31 years has been 10-3.

Both teams are 5-2 this season.