By STUART GROSKREUTZ
October 20, 2011

OAK PARK HEIGHTS - The Stillwater football team is still working to bolster an inconsistent offense, but the defense provided a proper safety net again on Wednesday as the Ponies knocked off Hastings 28-7 in a Suburban East Conference game on Senior Night at Pony Stadium.

The Ponies allowed just two first downs in the second half, despite little room for error while defending a short field after handing Hastings three second-half interceptions.

Stillwater pulled away with a 14-point fourth quarter to finish the regular season with a 6-2 record, which is good enough for third place in the league standings behind Cretin-Derham Hall (8-0, 8-0) and Mounds View (7-1, 7-1), which handed the Ponies their only losses.

The 21-point setback was the largest of the season for the plucky Raiders (2-6, 2-6), who have lost four games by seven points or less.

"We're happy that our senior class got a win on Senior Night at home," said Stillwater coach Beau LaBore, whose team received the No. 3 seed and will host Tartan (2-6) in the Section 2AAAAA quarterfinals on Tuesday.

The Ponies outgained Hastings 276-183, but were unable to shake the Raiders until two touchdowns in the last nine minutes to extend their 14-7 halftime lead.

"We're disappointed again that we're leaving a lot of plays and a lot of opportunities on the field," LaBore said. "In the playoffs, if you leave those plays on the field you go home. We've been trying to build each and every week to get to the point where we can come out of Section 2AAAAA, but we're leaving too many plays on the field to do that right now. We've got to get that fixed immediately."

Nick Anderson provided the bulk of the offense for Stillwater while rushing for 140 yards and two touchdowns on 22 attempts. Quarterback Nate Ricci added 47 rushing yards and completed 4 of 7 passes for 53 yards and two touchdowns.

"It was Senior Night and we wanted to put some points on the board and get those seniors out there," Anderson said. "Our offense line did great. They're starting to click and that's the reason we could run the ball. We can't do it without them up front. We made some big plays when we needed to and got the W."

Stillwater's offense leaned on the defense after committing three turnovers in the second half, but the Raiders did not convert any of the three into points.

"The defense got us out of some tough situations," LaBore said. "Outside of one big play, we kept them off the scoreboard and prevented any significant drives."

Joe Stanton recovered a fumble in the fourth quarter to help set up Stillwater's first scoring drive after halftime. Ricci threaded a 14-yard touchdown pass to Charlie Register, who was hit hard over the middle after hauling it in, to grab a 21-7 lead with 8:33 remaining in the game.

Register also snared an interception later in the fourth to set up the Ponies at the Hastings 15 - after his apparent touchdown return was called back by penalty. That mattered little after Ricci scored from 11 yards out just two plays later to give Stillwater a 28-7 lead with 2:32 remaining.

Ricci was solid, as usual, but the Ponies also found production from other sources while scoring on their first drive of the game - a 16-play, 65-yard march that chewed up nearly eight minutes off the clock.

Anderson, Zach Krenz and Cartier Alexander each provided meaningful gains on the drive, which was capped by Anderson's 3-yard touchdown.

"That was huge just to put points on the board at the beginning and set the tone for the game that we're going to run the ball and we're going to score," Anderson said. "We wanted to establish the run and work off that."

The Ponies attempted just one pass on the drive and did not run a play that went for more than nine yards. It was a good start, but the coach is also looking for a more efficient passing game to keep defenses honest.

"We need to get to a point where if we're going to run the ball numerous times in a row, the time that we do pass we need to be effective," LaBore said. "We didn't execute on the pass play, but otherwise it's pretty nice to go against a good defense and matriculate down the field and get points on the board."

The drive was also unusual for the Ponies this season in that Ricci didn't touch the ball once, which LaBore quipped was just "bad coaching".

"We've got other guys that can make plays, but naturally we want to give him the best opportunity to make a lot of plays, too," the coach said. "We have some guys and if they're going to focus on Nate we're going to make sure that we go to different guys and we've got other guys that can step up and make plays."

The coach said Anderson's evening could have been even more productive.

"Nick ran well and had a good game, but he could have had a great game," LaBore said. "We're going to keep pushing him to have a great game and that means he's got to hit every hole. He can't hit most of the holes, he's got to hit every hole and then he'll have a real big game."

Hastings relied on running back Tyler Mellick, who carried 24 times for 133 of the team's 183 total. Quarterback Aaron Stoneberg completed a 42-yard pass to Ellis Williams early in the second quarter to tie the game at 7-all, but he was also under duress throughout much of the game while getting sacked four times for minus-30 yards.

Ricci found Register for a 19-yard scoring play and a 14-7 lead with 3:30 remaining in the second quarter.

n In addition to Stillwater hosting sixth-seeded Tartan in Tuesday's Section 2AAAAA quarterfinals, the other match-ups were released on Thursday morning based on using a QRF formula required by the Minnesota State High School League for those sections that utilize a point system.

"I'm not a fan of the formula for a number of different reasons, but it looks like we'll get a home game," LaBore said immediately following Wednesday's victory over Hastings. "We'll have to get ready to play our best game of the year and I think our guys will be up to the challenge, but they've got to get it done."

North St. Paul will travel to top-seeded Totino-Grace - a newcomer to Class AAAAA - while Roseville will play at second-seeded Mounds View. Fourth-seeded White Bear Lake will host Irondale in another quarterfinal game.

Hastings: 0-7-0-0 - 7
Stillwater: 7-7-0-14 - 28

St - Nick Anderson 3 run (Tait Delahunt kick) 1:21.
Has - Ellis Williams 42 pass from Aaron Stoneberg (PJ Piotrowski kick) 11:54.
St - Charlie Register 19 pass from Ricci (Delahunt kick) 3:30.
St - Register 14 pass from Ricci (Delahunt kick) 8:33.
St - Anderson 12 run (Delahunt kick) 2:32.

Team stats

First downs: Has 8, St 20
Rushes-yards: Has 30-100, St 44-212
Passing yards: Has 83, St 64
Total yards: Has 183, St 276
Comp-Att-Int: Has 6-18-2, St 6-14-3
Fumbles/lost: Has 1/1, St 1/1
Penalties/yards: Has 6/61, St 5/45
Punts/avg: Has 5/37.8, St 2/25.5

Individual statistics

Rushing - Has: Tyler Mellick 24-133, Tate Sykes 2-(-3) and Aaron Stoneberg 4-(-30); St: Nick Anderson 22-140, Nate Ricci 12-47, Cartier Alexander 4-15, Zach Krenz 5-7 and Aaron Romportl 1-3.

Passing (com-att-yds-td-int) - Has: Aaron Stoneberg 6-17-83-1-2 and Tyler Melllick 0-1-0-0-0; St: Nate Ricci 4-7-53-2-0 and Aaron Romportl 2-7-11-0-3.

Receiving - Has: Ellis Williams 2-60, Jayson Bauer 3-30 and Tate Sykes 1-(-7); St: Charlie Register 2-33, Cartier Alexander 2-13, Grant Moden 1-13 and Austin Holmberg 1-5.

Kickoff returns - Has: Jesse Green 1-30, Ellis Williams 2-22 and Mike Rodriguez 1-5; St: Charlie Register 1-22 and Billy Wagner 1-15.

Punt returns - Has: Tate Sykes 2-23; St: Nate Ricci 1-55 and Charlie Register 1-1.

Interceptions - Has: Dylan Nelson 1-5, Eric McCarthy 1-24 and Tate Sykes 1-14; St: Sam Hodnefield 1-0 and Charlie Register 1-30.

Fumble recoveries - Has: Isaac Eichmann 1-0; St: Joe Stanton 1-0.