ST JAMES — Defense wins football games.

That old adage proved true Friday night for Dustin Howard’s Owensville Dutchmen football team during their Four Rivers Conference (FRC) opener at St. James against the host Tigers.

In addition to two interceptions that led to scores, Owensville’s defense turned St. James over on downs twice leading to two more scores during OHS’ 43-22 road victory over the Tigers.

“Our defense simply got after it tonight,” Howard said. “We had so many guys make big plays tonight and it’s always nice that it is not just one guy.”

Both teams traded punts in a first quarter highlighted by defense that ended in a scoreless tie.

Two plays into the second quarter, St. James went for it on fourth-and-three only to see Tiger quarterback Cooper Harlan sacked by Dutchmen linebacker Dalton Pyrtle.

This gave the Dutchmen a first down at the St. James 40-yard line.

Set up by a Blake Elliott to Landon Ely 39-yard pass completion, Elliott finished the drive three plays later on a 1-yard touchdown run.

Johannes Berg’s extra point gave OHS an early 7-0 lead with 9:07 until halftime.

Both teams again traded punts before the Dutchmen offense went back to work late in the second quarter.

Elliot completed pass plays of 18 and 11 yards to Zaiden Gates before a 23-yard completion to Tanner Meyer set the orange and black with a first-and-goal at the Tiger 6-yard line.

Two plays later, Elliott scored his second TD of the game from 3 yards away. Berg’s kick made it 14-0 Owensville with 1:26 for the second quarter.

Making an impact with his legs on offense, Isaiah Gates delivered with his hands on defense intercepting a Harlan pass on St. James’ next play from scrimmage giving the Dutchmen the ball in Tiger territory.

Another Elliott to Zaiden Gates pass completion set up a 22-yard TD strike from Elliott to Ely with :40 for the first half.

Berg’s kick gave Owensville a 21-0 halftime lead on the road.

“You have to tip your hat to Owensville,” first-year Tiger head football coach Dusty Craft said.

“We made too many mistakes and they turned those into enough points to keep us playing from behind.”

Elliott scored two more rushing touchdowns and found Meyer on a 51-yard TD pass to account for Owensville’s second-half scoring.

Elliott finished with 199 yards through the air on 10-14 passing with two touchdowns.

Meyer led Dutchmen receivers with 87 yards on four catches and a touchdown.

Jaden Gerlemann led the OHS defense with 10 total tackles while Bryce Horstmann and Ely also recorded interceptions for the orange and black.

Official rushing statistics for the Dutchmen were not available by press time.