By GEORGE THOLE
October 13, 2011

The Stillwater Ponies treated the alumni and fans to a 33-6 homecoming victory over East Ridge before a large crowd on Friday night.

Nursing a 6-0 lead into the half after Aaron Romportl's 2-yard TD run, coach Beau LaBore made some adjustments to jump-start his charges.

After using his ace Nate Ricci at several spots in the first 24 minutes, the coach returned the fleet-footed junior behind center. Ricci quickly responded with 34- and 60-yard touchdown runs to stretch the locals' lead to 19-donut heading into the final stanza.

I was aware of Ricci's speed after his role on the state title Ponies track team last spring. He hits second gear as soon as he clears the line and he is determined to cross the alumni stripes - I like that!

Ricci also hit Charlie Register for a 59-yard scoring strike to extend the lead to 26-6 with 10:02 left in the final quarter. Junior Nick Anderson made the score 33-6 with a 17-yard TD scamper at the 4:10 mark.

With 194 rushing yards (12.1 avg.), Ricci and the offense provided 380 total yards and plenty of fireworks - excuse me, a poor choice of words but they provided a nice touch (the fireworks, I mean).

Anderson had 18 carries for 102 yards (5.7 avg.) and Ricci completed 4 of 5 passes for 76 yards. Any time you have a night like that, credit has to go to the jumbos in the trenches, like Cody Holsten, Tyler Beadleson, Kyle Kazmierczak, Rich Pearson, Austin Conery and others.

The defense bent but never broke, even though they allowed the Raptors 235 yards, but they held the visitors to a scant 3.3 yards per rush. All-conference captain Cartier Alexander, Sam Hodnefield, Evan Ostrom, Sebastian Borges, Zac Houle, Register and Zach Krenz have been consistent.

Look for the Ponies to get into a battle of high-octane offenses at Roseville this week. Usually what the Raiders lack in defense they make up with speed. See you there!