Frontier’s Caleb Kirkpatrick (4) attacks the basket as St. Marys’ Trevor Maley (25) defends during Saturday’s game at Hank Morus Gym. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

NEW MATAMORAS — You can bet that when the Frontier Cougars get together for practice on Monday they will be shooting a whole bunch of free throws.

Head coach Roger Kirkpatrick was not pleased at all in his team’s shooting performance from the charity stripe Saturday afternoon at The Hank but that was about the only thing he could be disappointed in as the Cougars dismantled the St. Marys Blue Devils 65-28 to improve to 3-0 on the season.

The Cougars made just 10-of-19 free throws but had four scorers reach double figures and continued to play outstanding team defense to easily handle a young St. Marys team.

“I’m really pleased with the way our kids are playing. We just have to work on our foul shooting,” said Kirkpatrick. “I thought our intensity was there and our defense was very good again.”

The game was moved to an early afternoon start with heavy snow in the forecast, giving the Cougars very little rest after they downed Cameron on the road (43-18) the night before.

St. Marys’ Roe Maston (15) goes up for a jumper as Frontier’s Caleb Kirkpatrick (4) defends during Saturday’s game at Hank Morus Gym. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

That lack of rest may have slowed the Cougars a bit at the start, but by midway through the first quarter they were clicking on all cylinders.

Frontier trailed 4-3 early on but a 12-0 run sparked by seven points from senior Avery Powell gave them an 11-point advantage.

St. Marys got a late two-pointer by Jude Bills and a free throw by Chan Wilkison to cut the lead to 15-7 to the end of the first quarter.

The Cougars got those points back rather quickly when they opened the second quarter with a pair of freebies by junior Jacob Bowersock and a 3-pointer by sophomore Kason Hoff.

Back-to-back St. Marys buckets by Roe Maston cut the lead back to nine, but the Cougars closed out the second half with a 14-4 run to take a commanding 34-15 lead into the break.

“We played late last night and I thought we really stepped up to the plate,” said Kirkpatrick. “We started a little slow but we really played well in the second and third quarters.”

That lead would only expand in the third quarter as the Cougars began the second half with a 20-4 run to blow things wide open.

Bowersock accounted for 10 of those points as the Cougars closed out the third period with a comfortable 54-21 lead.

The game would shift back and forth from a running clock to a regular one as the lead got over 35 points before the Cougars settled for the 37-point win.

Powell led the Cougars with 23 points while also hauling down a game-high 11 rebounds.

The Cougars dominated the glass as they pulled down 35 rebounds compared to just 19 for the visitors.

Joining Powell in double figures for FHS was Hoff with 18, Bowersock with 14 and senior Hunter Taylor with 10.

Kirkpatrick was glad to see so many kids get involved in the game on both sides of the court.

“I thought all seven kids in our rotation played really well,” said Kirkpatrick. “Powell and Bowersock played like we know they can, Taylor and Hoff were good and Caleb (Kirkpatrick) just plays great defense every single game.”

Bills led St. Marys with nine points while Maston added eight.

The Devils slipped to 0-2 on the young season with a trip to South Harrison next on the agenda for Monday night.

With three wins to their credit in as many tries, the Cougars will face their toughest test of the season Tuesday night when they host the undefeated Fort Frye Cadets.

“We’ve got three games next week against three really good teams beginning with Fort Frye,” said Kirkpatrick. “That will be a pretty good barometer on where we are at.”