By MARK HAZELWOOD

Sandusky Register

NORWALK

Southington coach Ryan Slone knew what his team was getting into Saturday night. And with time, it’s where he hopes his program can be.

The Wildcats ran into a playoff regular Saturday night in a Division VII first-round game vs. St. Paul — ranked No. 8 in the final Associated Press poll. The Flyers (10-1) scored the first time they touched the ball, and added seven more touchdowns in the first half in a 55-7 win.

Southington’s season ends at 5-6.

In 2001, Southington’s first playoff appearance was a 53-6 loss at Tiffin Calvert, a program which has 12 playoff appearances and two state championships. On Saturday, the Wildcats faced a St. Paul program in its 15th playoff appearance in 19 years, with one state title (2009) and three other state runner-up finishes (1997, 1999, 2004) on its playoff resume.

“They are a very good team with a lot of playoff tradition,” Slone said of St. Paul. “They are a very solid program, and I told the kids that this is what we’re trying to build to. We’re not quite there, but we started a playoff tradition tonight.

“Hopefully we can continue that and build the program to be like St. Paul, where they expect this every year,” Slone said. “We’ve made a step in the right direction. This takes time, it takes years, and these nine seniors helped build one of those steps, and now we have another step to get to.”

Things started ominously for Southington as St. Paul blocked a punt attempt less than two minutes into the game on the opening possession. Starting out at the Wildcat 4-yard line, St. Paul’s Jesse Gross walked in for the first touchdown, and Scottie Slauterbeck’s first of seven PATs made it 7-0 just 1:34 into the game.

St. Paul added two more touchdowns in the next seven minutes, as Slauterbeck found a wide open Bob Harwood for a 17-yard touchdown pass at the 7:25 mark of the first quarter, and running back Brad Smith ripped off a 57-yard scoring run with 2:59 left to make it 21-0.

The Wildcats then responded with their lone score of the night, as quarterback Austin Casper found fullback Brendan Baugher on a screen pass, and Baugher broke a tackle and outran two defenders for an 80-yard touchdown play at the 2:31 mark to make it 21-7.

“Our kids came out and played hard the whole game and kept our heads up,” Slone said. “We got down quickly, but they responded with a long touchdown pass to make it 21-7 and made them continue to play very hard, and not just walk all over us. But we ran into a great team.”

In the second quarter, St. Paul added touchdowns by Jared Nickoli (5-yard run), a 3-yard pass from Slauterbeck to Harwood, a 2-yard run by Nickoli and scoring runs of 17 and 5 by Gross.

“We came out and played well. The kids wanted to build off what they did in the regular season, and it was a nice opening round win,” St. Paul coach John Livengood said. “What you want to see is come out and see your team execute in a playoff game, and I was real pleased with that. Everyone was able to contribute and do a nice job.”

Southington was limited to five yards rushing on 22 attempts, and minus-24 yards net on the ground. Casper finished 6-of-18 passing for 122 yards and a touchdown, with Baugher catching two passes for 88 yards and the lone score.

St. Paul — which advances to face Wellsville (9-2) in the second round — got 130 yards and a TD from Smith on just seven attempts. Gross added 79 yards and 3 touchdowns on 10 attempts.