By STUART GROSKREUTZ
October 12, 2011

OAK PARK HEIGHTS - The blustery winds were an issue throughout Friday's homecoming football game at Stillwater Area High School, but versatile Nate Ricci was the biggest factor in the Ponies pulling away from East Ridge for a 33-6 Suburban East Conference victory.

The junior gained 136 of his 192 rushing yards in the second half and added a long touchdown pass for good measure as the Ponies (4-2 SEC, 4-2) pulled away after nursing a six-point halftime lead.

Ricci scored on runs of 34 and 60 yards in the third quarter and added a 59-yard touchdown pass to Charlie Register early in the fourth as Stillwater quickly turned a six-point lead into a comfortable 33-6 advantage.

"Offensively we left some points on the field in the first half," Ponies coach Beau LaBore said. "I'm happy with our guys and how they responded in the second half."

The Ponies successfully bounced back from a Week 5 loss to rival Mounds View with a victory in their first-ever game against the Raptors (1-5, 1-5), sending most of the 5,200 fans home happy.

"Coach said that we need to go undefeated in October and get the first win here," Ricci said. "That starts the month off great. The stands were packed and it was great to finally play East Ridge and beat them."

The first half was more subdued, with Stillwater failing to take advantage of a short field as the wind made field position all the more important. The Ponies fumbled on second-and-goal from the 6 on their opening drive and also gave the ball back on downs at the East Ridge 14 early in the second quarter.

Quarterback Aaron Romportl scored from 2 yards out with four minutes remaining in the first quarter as Stillwater grabbed a 6-0 lead after the botched extra-point attempt. That scoring drive started at the East Ridge 33 after a short punt into the wind. Ricci scampered 25 yards down to the doorstep before Romportl finished the drive on the next play.

The Raptors enjoyed more success with the wind at their back in the second quarter, but linebacker Zach Krenz stopped a drive all by himself while forcing and recovering a fumble on a reception by George Behr at the Stillwater 20 with about six minutes remaining in the half.

It wasn't the only big play by Krenz, who finished with 14 solo tackles in the game.

Leading by just six points at halftime, the Ponies began the second half with a strong series even though it did not result in points. Driving into the wind, they marched to the East Ridge 25 and erased nearly six minutes from the clock before getting stopped on fourth-and-1.

Stillwater defense forced a three-and-out and another poor punt by the Raptors - who averaged less than 20 yards on six punts, including three with the wind at their backs - set the Ponies up near midfield. By comparison, Tait Delahunt contributed punts of 21 and 23 yards into the wind to help out the defense in the battle for field position.

"He had to punt into the wind and that doesn't show up on the stat sheet, but they were very well-executed punts," LaBore said.

After getting the ball back, Nick Anderson, who finished with 102 yards on 18 attempts, ran for six yards on first down and then Ricci capped the three-play scoring drive with 8- and 34-yard gains for a 12-0 lead.

Stillwater wasted even less time on its next two possessions thanks to Ricci, who moved to quarterback for the second half. Ricci ran 60 yards for a touchdown on the first play of a drive late in the third quarter and then found Register for the 59-yard completion on Stillwater's first offensive play in the fourth quarter.

"It was still a tight game and we know we had to come out with a lot more intensity because we started a little slow," Ricci said.

In between those scores, the Raptors spoiled the shutout bid when Brandon Johnson scored on a 1-yard plunge early in the fourth quarter to trim the deficit to 19-6.

The Ponies answered quickly as Register slipped behind the East Ridge secondary and was nearly tripped up on the play, but kept his feet and out-kicked a defensive back to the end zone for a 26-6 lead.

"They were in a cover zero with no safeties over the top and I just read that and put it up for him and he made a great play," Ricci said.

In addition to his nearly 200 rushing yards on just 16 attempts for a 12.1 yards per carry average, Ricci completed four of five passes for 76 yards - just one week after a 100-yard receiving game against Mounds View.

"I love playing quarterback but I'll do whatever the coaches tell me," Ricci said. "If they want to put me at receiver I'll go run routes and running back, I'll hit holes. I'll do whatever they tell me to."

Stillwater's first three scoring drives in the second half required just five plays combined, which didn't give the defense much time to catch its breath.

"Nate is a player we want to have in a variety of different situations and how much will be dictated by evaluating film, evaluating practice weeks and taking what the defense gives us," LaBore said. "It was nice to see some explosive plays and some long-yardage plays. You want to score points, but when you score quickly or when you get three-and-out the defense has to spend a lot of time on the field. Fortunately it was the former as opposed to the latter. Our defense played well, though. What's more important is when the defense sets us up like they did in the first half, we have got to finish and we have not done that consistently or well so we made it harder on ourselves to score tonight. We didn't score on short fields and we played oddly well going into the wind."

The coach showed faith in the offense while sending them into the wind for the third quarter.

"We decided we were going to have confidence in our offense and our defense that we can take the ball and take care of business, despite the fact that the wind was in our face," LaBore said. "You can bury yourselves in there if you don't get some first downs and if you don't get stops, but we decided we were going to be confident with our offense. We got a long third-quarter drive and came up a couple inches short on fourth down, but the defense got a stop and got the ball back and we finished that drive."

The Ponies added a touchdown with four minutes remaining as Anderson carried on seven straight plays and capped a 56-yard drive with a 17-yard scoring run.

With Mounds View handing White Bear Lake its second loss of the season on Friday, but the Ponies join Woodbury and the Bears in a tie for third place in the conference standings.

"We responded well after a disappointing week," LaBore said. "The best part about these guys is we have a long ways to go if we're going to get where we want and I know they're going to come ready to work on Saturday morning and throughout the week to get ready for Roseville (on Friday)."

East Ridge: 0-0-0-6 - 6
Stillwater: 6-0-13-14 - 33

St - Aaron Romportl 2 run (run failed) 3:50.
St - Nate Ricci 34 run (pass failed) 3:43.
St - Ricci 60 run (Tait Delahunt kick) 0:25.
ER - Brandon Johnson 1 run (kick failed) 10:11.
St - Charlie Register 59 pass from Ricci (Delahunt kick) 10:02.
St - Nick Anderson 17 run (Delahunt kick) 4:10.

Team stats

First downs: ER 17, St 15
Rushes-yards: ER 43-142, St 39-304
Passing yards: ER 93, St 76
Total yards: ER 235, St 380
Comp-Att-Int: ER 8-19-0, St 4-8-76
Fumbles/lost: ER 3/1, St 1/1
Penalties/yards: ER 1/5, St 2/20
Punts/avg: ER 6/19.7, St 2/22.0

Individual statistics

Rushing - ER: Nick Leach 15-69, Dayo Ogundepo 11-38, Bayo Idowau 5-18, Austin Fischer 3-10, David Lang 1-7, Jon Miller 2-4 and Brandon Johnson 6-(-4); St: Nate Ricci 16-194, Nick Anderson 18-102, Zach Krenz 3-9 and Aaron Romportl 2-(-1).

Passing (com-att-yds-td-int) - ER: Brandon Johnson 8-14-93-0-0, Alex Thomas 0-4-0-0-0 and Lucas Knutson 0-1-0-0-0; St: Nate Ricci 4-5-76-1-0 and Aaron Romportl 0-3-0-0-0.

Receiving - ER: Luke Misna 4-66, Patrick Ubel 1-13, Lance Durand 2-12 and Austin Fischer 1-2; St: Charlie Register 2-65, Austin Holmberg 1-6 and Joshua Weess 1-5.

Kickoff returns - ER: Dayo Ogundepo 1-20, David Lang 1-15 and Anton Walker 1-9; St: none.

Punt returns - ER: none; St: none.

Interceptions - ER: none; St: none.

Fumble recoveries - ER: Marcus Kelly 1-0; St: Zach Krenz 1-0.