Needing a cure after last week’s disappointing loss to London, Bellefontaine regained its swagger on homecoming night Friday against Tecumseh.
The Chieftains scored on all seven of their first-half possessions to take a 49-0 halftime lead and they went on to win 56-8 in a Central Buckeye Conference Kenton Trail division football game.
The Chiefs are now 5-2 overall and 1-1 in the CBC. Tecumseh remains winless at 0-7, 0-2.
“It felt good to be back at full health and to get back having fun,” said BHS quarterback Tavien St. Clair, who was 18-of-22 passing for 260 yards and five touchdowns while rushing for an 11-yard TD in the first half before watching his brother Reign take over in the second half. “It’s always cool to do it with the guys you go to war with … we had a lot of guys step up. We had some guys score their first touchdown and it was cool to see them celebrate.”
The first half was complete domination by the Chiefs.
Bellefontaine piled up 419 yards of offense, while the defense allowed just 20 yards and did not give up a first down over the first two quarters.
“I am proud of our players for playing up to the standard,” said Bellefontaine head coach Jason Brown. “We executed right off the bat and played very complimentary football in the first half.”
Lakers roll over Ben Logan
It was a one-sided affair Friday night at Indian Lake.
The Lakers rolled to a 47-0 victory over fellow Logan County squad Benjamin Logan in Central Buckeye Conference football action .
The Lakers (2-0 Mad River, 5-2 overall) scored on five of the six drives in the first half, then added a couple more scores under a running clock in the second.
Coach Jonn Rapp of Indian Lake said, “It’s a big week. It’s a rivalry week. Everybody knows each other; emotions are really high. All week we talked about making sure we maxed out our emotions, maxed out our pride, and maxed out our focus. I couldn’t be more proud of how well everybody did on that.”
He added, “The last two weeks have been really good for our kids to see. You know, with the muddy slop like last week, we had to rely on the run. This week, we were able to stay a little bit more balanced. It’s good that our kids can see we can win games either way. It builds confidence going down the home stretch.”
Rapp also praised the defensive game plan. “Ben Logan is really good at using all 53 yards width of the field. They force you to guard it all and then they’ll take their shots downfield. So you have to be really balanced; don’t let your eyes get tricked.”
For the Lakers, Drake Cosby ran 16 times for 104 yards, scoring two touchdowns from two and six yards out, respectively.
Draden Stevenson (four yards) and Tristan Shoffner (one yard) also reached the end zone for the Lakers on the ground.
Quarterback Madden Lillard completed 17-of-29 passes for 231 yards. Three of those were for touchdowns. Two went to Quest Clay (21 and 14 yards), and one to Brodey Reisinger from three yards out. Lillard also ran seven times for 45 yards.
Clay had six catches for 99 yards, and Reisinger pulled in six for a total of 84. Colin Bendler made four catches for 42 yards.
Ben Logan (0-2 Mad River, 0-7) found little traction on offense, with just two first downs in the first two quarters. They had 128 total yards on the night.
Raiders coach Paul Jenne said, “We are just young everywhere. Until we can get as many seniors as other teams have on the field, it’s hard to grow up on a Friday night when you’re looking at an offensive backfield of a freshman and sophomore. You take your lumps and we’re two years into taking lumps.”
“They have great speed,” Jenne said of the Lakers’ attack. “They’re well coached. Either you have speed or you don’t.”
Ben Logan’s Wyatt Predmore connected on 6 of his 16 pass attempts, with 82 yards. Four of those throws were to Collin Powell for 68 yards. Predmore was also the leading rusher with 40 yards on eight carries.
Indian Lake took the opening kickoff back to the 24-yard line. After a big gain by Clay on the first snap for 10 yards, they were helped by a couple of offsides calls on Ben Logan.
Tigers make it a rough night for Roughriders
West Liberty-Salem blew out visiting West Jefferson 43-6 in an Ohio Heritage Conference matchup Friday night.
The Tigers improve to 2-0 in the OHC North and are now 6-1 overall, while West Jefferson drops to 0-2 in the division and 2-6 on the year.
WL-S scored twice in the first period. The first came on a 17-yard pass to Reese Oder from Nick Shifflet, and the second on a 60-yard throw from Shifflet to Jack Bahan.
Carson Poppe then ran back an interception three yards, and a safety by the Tigers defense made it 23-0.
Josh Wilcoxon had a three-yard TD run and the hosts led 30-0 at the break.
In the third quarter, Shifflet threw his third touchdown of the night, this one for 58 yards to Bahan.
The Roughriders then broke up the shutout bid with a 10-yard pass from Austin Buescher to Nick Fitzpatrick.
WL-S got a 57-yard touchdown run by Josiah Stidham for the lone score of the final period.
Pirates undone in the second half in loss to Cavaliers
A second-half aerial offensive upended what had been a level contest through two quarters Friday as Riverside could not keep up with Lehman Catholic in a 34-18 loss in a Three Rivers Conference game.
The Pirates (3-4, 2-2) scored first and led at halftime, but were outscored 27-6 in the third and fourth quarters as the Cavaliers (6-0, 4-1) took control of the game.
Lehman quarterback Turner Lachey threw three second-half touchdown passes and ran for another to help propel Lehman.
“You have to give those guys over there a lot of credit,” Pirates head coach Bryce Hodge said. “(Lachey) is a tremendous athlete and we tried to keep him contained and in the pocket and still you saw what he did to us with his arm through the air.”
Playing shorthanded without starting quarterback Gavin Orsborne who did not play due to injury, Riverside kept the game close throughout.
Freshman Brody Orsborne played quarterback for Riverside helped guide an 80-yard, six-plus minute touchdown drive for the first points of the game to give the homestanding Pirates a 6-0 lead.
Orsborne capped off the drive with a 3-yard TD run that punctuated the extended Pirates possession that took most of the first quarter and spanned early into the second.
The PAT was no good and Riverside led 6-0 with just over 11 minutes to go in the second quarter. Lehman responded moments later, set up in part by a 40-yard completion on third down to put the Cavaliers at the Riverside 15-yard line.
A TD run capped the drive moments later and was followed by a successful PAT to put Lehman ahead for a time, 7-6.
