St. Paul wins shootout for Livengood's 300th

Oct. 8—EDON — On a milestone night, it took a record performance.

The St. Paul football team won a shootout over host Edon for a second straight year on Friday. The Flyers won their sixth straight game with the 60-52 non-league win at Leanne Field.

But the victory also served as the 300th for head coach John Livengood — all at St. Paul. He unofficially became the 17th coach in Ohio high school football history to achieve the milestone.

Of the 17 coaches, Livengood has the third best winning percentage (.789), and is only the sixth to win 300 games at one school.

However, the victory wasn't without another major milestone. All-Ohio senior running back Quincey Crabbs unofficially ran for 391 yards on 38 attempts and five touchdowns for the Flyers, which is a new record for yards in a game.

The old mark stood for a decade, when Michael Griffin ran for 335 yards in 2012 against Crestview.

"You can't even describe it, this means so much to me," Crabbs said. "To get Coach Livengood his 300th win meant everything to us seniors. He worked so hard for us, so we wanted to get it for him."

A year ago, St. Paul outlasted the Bombers for a 45-44 win in Norwalk. On Friday, there were even more points to be had.

St. Paul trailed for the first time with 8:28 left in the third quarter when the Bombers (4-4) went ahead 39-36 on a 26-yard touchdown pass from Kyler Sapp to Caden Nester.

The Flyers — who are now up to the No. 2 spot in Region 25 — responded with a 10-play, 65-yard scoring drive as Jack Stieber scored on a 13-yard run on a third-and-4 with 4:24 left in the third quarter. Crabbs ran in the conversion and put St. Paul ahead 44-39.

The Bombers then opted to punt on a 4th-and-8 from their 44 on the next possession, and pinned the Flyers at their own 1.

However, St. Paul churned out a 99-yard drive in eight plays over a 4:11 stretch, highlighted by a 62-yard run from Crabbs. Stieber scored on a 7-yard run with 11:20 left in the game, and added the 2-point run to make it 52-39.

Edon answered with a 65-yard drive of its own and pulled within 52-45 with 7:52 left, but the Flyers needed just three plays to counter on a 26-yard TD run by Crabbs with 6:28 left.

Leading 60-45, the Flyers allowed one more TD to the Bombers with 4:03 left.

But when St. Paul got the ball back, it was able to run out the clock with eight plays covering 42 yards to preserve LIvengood's historic win.

"It was a hard fought win and I'm proud of the kids for hanging in there," Livengood said. "We did enough ... we did enough to get the win."

The Flyers went into the game without fullback Josh Pocos, then lost standout running back Ben Burger to an injury after one quarter. He had totaled 148 yards and a 77-yard TD on just eight attempts.

Yet all told, the Flyers unofficially ran for 618 yards and 8 TDs on 57 attempts among Burger, Stieber (11 for 79) and Crabbs.

"We had Jack step in and Xavier Smith our backup tight end steps in as well," Livengood said. "They did so well blocking for each other. We knew at that point with Ben out that Quincey had to carry the load, and the line stepped up and blocked that much harder.

"They knew how important it was going to be with losing our balance without Ben being back there."

The Flyers got off and rolling early, as Crabbs capped a 10-play, 87-yard drive with a 3-yard TD run at the 8:23 mark of the first quarter. The kick was blocked, and St. Paul went for two points the rest of the game.

After the first of just two punts in the game — both by Edon — the Flyers scored the next play as Burger's 77-yard TD run and conversion run by Crabbs made it 14-0 at the 5:33 mark.

But the Bombers responded with a 75-yard drive and scored on a Sapp to Carter Kiess 3 TD pass — then surprised St. Paul with an onside kick recovery at the Flyers' 40. The very next play, a busted coverage saw Sapp and Kiess connect for a 40-yard TD pass, and just like that, the game was tied at 14 with 2:21 left in the opening quarter.

The Flyers then needed seven plays to go 72 yards with Crabbs scoring from the 11, then Burger left after scoring the conversion for a 22-14 lead at the 11:24 mark of the second.

St. Paul appeared to have all the momentum when AJ Meyer intercepted a Sapp pass inside the 5, setting up an 8-play, 78-yard scoring drive that saw Crabbs score for a fourth time from 15 yards out.

The try for two failed, but the Flyers were back up 28-14 with 6:39 left in the half.

But the Bombers responded in a big way. Sapp scored on an 8-yard run after two long passes, then when the Flyers were driving inside the Edon 5, the ball was stripped loose and the Bombers recovered.

The very next play, another breakdown in the Flyer secondary saw Sapp find a wide open Max Radabaugh for a 96-yard TD pass with 1:57 left in the half to tie the game at 28.

In a telling theme of the night, both teams scored in the final two minutes.

A big kick return to the Edon 30 by Meyer saw Crabbs score three plays later from the 7 to make it 36-28 after he ran in the conversion with 41 seconds left in the half.

But Edon started from its own 25 and got to the St. Paul 9 with two seconds left in the half. Kicker Carlo Sprea easily made a 26-yard field goal to make it a 36-31 deficit at the half.

Sapp unofficially completed 37-of-53 pass attempts for 552 yards and 5 TDs for the Bombers.

Nester caught 11 passes for 157 yards, while Radabaugh had 10 catches for 234 yards, and Kiess had nine catches for 110 yards.

"First of all, you tip your cap to Edon for the way they played," Livengood said. "They have a great quarterback who can throw the ball to some outstanding athletes. We made a lot of mistakes defensively in the first half, but I thought we played a lot better in the second half, even though I know they still hit some big plays.

"But we contested a lot of throws and did a good job of straightening some things up. It was a hard fought win, and I give our kids credit for the way they did fight."

Faced with a two-hour drive home, Livengood quickly reflected on the milestone win. There will be little time to celebrate, as the Flyers (4-0 Firelands Conference host Ashland Crestview (8-0, 4-0) next week with a title share at stake.

"I've been lucky and blessed, because you have to have great players to do that," he said. "And it's not so much that they're great players, but they are dedicated and hard working kids. You have to have kids who are disciplined and work hard.

"I got great assistant coaches, longtime coaches like Tom Baker and Larry Fisher, people like that. It's not about me. It's about the kids and what we do together as a program. I've had great administrative support, great secretaries like Chris Claar, John Rossman and Chris Clark, our maintenance staff ... all those people contribute to our success."

The coach also noted his family support.

"There were times I considered quitting coaching when my kids were younger, but they didn't want me to do that," he said. "They wanted me to keep coaching and they know the time sacrifice involved. My family that loved and supported me, especially my wife Kris, who takes care of me."

St. Paul 14 22 16 8 — 60

Edon 14 17 8 13 — 52

Scoring

STP — Quincey Crabbs 3 run (kick blocked)

STP — Ben Burger 77 run (Crabbs run)

ED — Carter Kiess 3 pass from Kyler Sapp (Carlo Sprea kick)

ED — Carter Kiess 40 pass from Sapp (Sprea kick)

STP — Crabbs 11 run (Ben Burger run)

STP — Crabbs 15 run (run failed)

ED — Sapp 8 run (Sprea kick)

ED — Max Radabaugh 96 pass from Sapp (kick good)

STP — Crabbs 7 run (Crabbs run)

ED — Sprea 26-yard field goal

ED — Caden Nester 26 pass from Sapp (Nester pass from Sapp)

STP — Stieber 13 run (Crabbs run)

STP — Stieber 7 run (Stieber run)

ED — Sapp 12 run (pass failed)

STP — Crabbs 26 run (Stieber run)

ED — Nester 9 pass from Sapp (Sprea kick)

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Most coaching wins Ohio history

1. 401: Jim France, Akron Coventry, Akron Manchester (1971-2019)

2. 381: Bob Lutz, Ironton St. Joseph, Ironton (1969-2011)

3. 371: Reno Saccoccia, Steubenville (1983-2017)

4. 369: Chuck Kyle, Cleveland St. Ignatius (1983-2021)

5. 361: Ed Domsitz, Trotwood-Madison, Northmont, Kettering Alter (1976-present)

6. 360 : Terry Malone, Hamilton Badin (1957-2003)

7. 337: Randy Baughman, Newark Licking Valley, Gnadenhutten Indian Valley North (1982-2020)

8. 336: Jay Circosta, Woodsfield Monroe Central (1971-2017)

9. 334: Al Hetrick, Versailles (1968-2005)

10. 323: Pat Mancuso, Leetonia and Cincinnati Princeton (1955-96)

11. 318: Ron Hinton, Amanda-Clearcreek, Chillicothe (1980-present)

12. 310: Bill Gutbrod, Clev. St. Joseph, Gates Mills Gilmour Academy (1950-97)

13. 309: Don Bucci, Youngstown Cardinal Mooney (1966-1999)

14. 308: August Bossu, Cle. Cathedral Latin, Cleveland Benedictine (1947-93)

15. 303: Paul Culver Jr., Thornville Sheridan, Buckeye North, Glouster Trimble (1973-2012)

16. 301: Bob Gregg, Dayton Jefferson Township and Centerville (1959-99)

17. 300: John Livengood, Norwalk St. Paul (1991-present)