St. John's football back where it belongs

FINDLAY - It's a gross understatement to say the last two years have been long for the Delphos St. John's football program. After winning the Division VI state title in 2005, the Blue Jays went zippo on playoff appearances in 2006 and '07.

That's an eternity for a program that won four state titles in nine years.

Now, the Jays are back where they feel the program belongs. After beating Ada 38-28 in a Division VI, Region 22 final at Findlay, St. John's is once again in the state semifinals.

"I think that's pretty good place for us to be," St. John's coach Todd Schulte said.

One more win and St. John's is back in the state championship for the eighth time since 1997.

History - both good and bad - is always there at St. John's. So, the players focus on the current. And currently, they're headed for another week of football practice and at least one more game.

"We're more about the present. We don't worry about the past anymore," St. John's senior defensive end Tyler Hayson said. "That's for the past guys. They worry about that. We're all about the future."

It was largely the St. John's defense leading the team back to their rightful position. To stop the Bulldogs, or at least collar them, St. John's needed to do two things - put pressure on quarterback Mitchell Faine (35 of 53 passing, 317 yards, three passing touchdowns, one rushing) and not allow the Ada receivers to create extra yards after first contact.

By and large, the Jays succeeded at both.

Faine was sacked four times, including twice by Hayson, and pressured much more.

"We just had to body (Faine) up, wrap around him," Hayson said. "We couldn't arm-tackle him; he's too big for that. We just had to wrap him up, make sure he didn't get back up."

St. John's consistently held Ada to gains of less than 10 yards. The Bulldogs' biggest gain from scrimmage was a 39-yard rush by Luke Irwin. Their longest pass play was a 20-yard completion to Heath Jackson.

"Now, we missed some tackles. But generally we were right there. And if we missed one, there were two or three guys coming and able to wrap him up shortly after," Schulte said.

The doubters have followed the Jays. After finishing 2-8 just last year, there's no way they belong in the state semifinals. They cannot be that good.

Yet, here they are. Schulte normally hears any number of excuses why the Jays won, or more to the point, why their opponents lost.

He thinks the win over Ada should answer the questions and silence the doubters.

So what's the excuse for the regional championship?

"They can have any excuse they want," Schulte said. "We're going home with a victory."