Delphos St. John’s rolls in Div. VI title contest

November 29, 2008 at 12:00a.m.

The Blue Jays defeated top-seeded Hopewell-Loudon, 34-14.

MASSILLON (AP) — Delphos St. John’s reached its ultimate goal a year early on Friday with a big boost from quarterback Wes Ulm.

The junior rushed for 198 yards and one touchdown on 24 carries to lead the Blue Jays (13-2) to their fifth Ohio Division VI high school football championship with a 34-14 win over Bascom Hopewell-Loudon.

Coming off a disappointing 2-8 season, loaded with underclassmen and unranked in the final regular-season polls, the Blue Jays entered the playoffs considered a year away from being a true championship contender.

“We left no doubt that we’re not a year away,” said Ulm, who also completed 3 of 8 passes for 90 yards and two touchdowns.

With the win at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium, the Blue Jays earned their fifth consecutive playoff win over a higher-seeded team. Delphos St. John’s, seeded third, improved to 5-0 in state title games under coach Todd Schulte. They went unbeaten in 43 games while winning three consecutive titles in 1997-99 and added another championship in 2005.

This title was especially sweet for Schulte.

“Every time somebody told us ’no,’ we got a little stronger, a little more motivated,” Schulte said.

Hopewell-Loudon (14-1), ranked No. 1 in the final Associated Press regular-season poll, came in averaging 40 points, but again was denied its first state title. A year ago, the Chieftains also were unbeaten and top-ranked but lost to Newark Catholic in the title game, 28-14.

“The best way to stop our offense is to control the ball against us,” Chieftains coach Brian Colatruglio said. “It’s worked twice in our last 30 games — unfortunately both times for the title.”

Ulm gained big yards with nifty broken-field running, including a scramble early in the third quarter when he appeared trapped well behind the line of scrimmage on a third-and-10 pass play. Instead, Ulm picked his way through and around the Chieftains’ defense for a 24-yard gain.

“My only thought was don’t get tackled,” Ulm said. “Otherwise, I can’t explain what I was doing.”

That set up a 5-yard TD run by Jordan Leininger on fourth down to cap a 16-play, 77-yard drive that consumed nearly nine minutes and gave the Blue Jays a 27-14 lead.

“In my wildest dreams, I never thought we’d have such a long drive,” Schulte said. “I’ll scratch my head over that one for awhile.”