St. John's storms into regional finals

LIMA — Leipsic had a few early chances.

After that, the Vikings had nothing.

Delphos St. John’s was too physical and too quick.

The Blue Jays ran over Leipsic 34-7 in the Division VI football regional semifinals Saturday at Lima Stadium.

The Blue Jays led 28-0 at the half and cruised home from there. St. John’s racked up 416 total yards, including 288 on the ground. The Vikings finished with 132 total yards, 41 coming on the ground.

“We watched them on film and we knew they were big and we knew they were physical and from an athletic standpoint, we thought we could hold up a little bit,” Leipsic coach Joe Kirkendall said. “But they are who they are. There’s no doubt about it. … You have to play a perfect game.”

St. John’s tailback Jordan Leininger led the Blue Jays with 96 yards on 20 carries with one touchdown. Quarterback Wes Ulm ran for 69 yards on eight carries and two TDs. In the air, Ulm completed a perfect 10 of 10 for 128 yards and two TDs. He threw touchdown passes of 11 and 38 yards.

St. John’s (12-0) will meet Ada (12-0) for the regional championship Saturday at a site to be named. Leipsic ends its season 10-2.

Early on, St. John’s didn’t look like the defending state champs. In the first eight minutes, the Blue Jays lost two fumbles. But Leipsic failed to capitalize.

After the first St. John’s turnover, Leipsic quarterback Liam Nadler was picked off by Justin Backus.

Then, three plays after St. John’s lost its second fumble, Nadler went back to throw. He cocked his arm, but the ball was stripped out by Nate Webb, who recovered the bouncing ball at the Leipsic 35 with 2:52 left in the first quarter.

“Even though we did give them two early turnovers our defense was able to get those two turnovers back,” St. John’s coach Todd Schulte said. “Once we got rolling, we executed really well.”

Three plays later, Ulm took an option keeper around the left side for a 15-yard TD to give the Blue Jays a 7-0 lead.

A.J. Klausing next picked off a Nadler pass for the Blue Jays. St. John’s went 40 yards in five plays for its next score. Leininger’s 1-yard touchdown gave St. John’ a 14-0 lead with 8:31 left before halftime.

After establishing the run, the Blue Jays went to the air. Ulm hit Steven Metcalfe for an 11-yard touchdown to make it 21-0. To close the half, Ulm fired a 38-yard strike to Tyler Bergfeld in the left corner of the end zone to make it 28-0.

“They were bound and determine to stop the run and our passing game came to life,” Schulte said.

Up front, the Blue Jays’ line carved big holes, led by first team all-Midwest Athletic Conference players, center Alex Recker, guard Joey Grubenhoff and tackle Austin Vogt.

Defensively, the Blue Jays’ defense held Nadler to 8 of 16 passes for 91 yards. They picked him off twice and sacked him four times, including two by Derek Klaus.

Chris Pohlman led the Blue Jays with 10 tackles. Joel Pohlman and Chris Ulm both had seven stops.

“Coach (Steve) Recker gives our linebackers a key to read off and we really don’t go on intuition or what we think they are going to run, we go on reads and the steps the tailback and quarterback take during the play,” Chris Pohlman said.