Football Wrapup: Gritty Chiefs rally late for win over Alder

October 14, 2023

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Bellefontaine’s Jayden Temple (25) celebrates after a key stop for the defense during Friday’s win over Jonathan Alder. (Examiner photo | Tony Barrett)

PLAIN CITY — Facing a crossroads in the season after a 36-6 loss to London in Week 6, Bellefontaine’s football team has been on a mission ever since.

The Chiefs won their third game in a row here Friday by scoring the go-ahead touchdown with 2:11 remaining and getting a huge defensive stop to snuff out Jonathan Alder’s final drive in a 28-23 thriller in Central Buckeye Conference play.

“We had a couple of issues on special teams, so this wasn’t our best complimentary performance,” said Bellefontaine head coach Jason Brown. “But we played our grittiest, toughest game tonight. I really feel like we loved each other through the ups and downs, and showed great determination.”

Well-rounded Lakers push past Northwestern

Indian Lake played a complimentary brand of football on Friday, riding a well-rounded performance to a 35-14 victory over visiting Northwestern in a Central Buckeye Conference Mad River Division game.

Indian Lake improves to 6-3 overall (3-1). Northwestern falls to 3-6 (1-3).

The Lakers responded well Friday after falling behind early in the first quarter. Indian Lake fumbled the opening kickoff and the Warriors recovered and took over offensively with good field position.

Preston Allen put the Warriors ahead with 9:49 to go in the first quarter, scoring on a 1-yard touchdown run to make the score 7-0.

Indian Lake responded just minutes later when Burke Lillard rushed in from three yards out to tie the game, 7-7. The Lakers defense generated a turnover of its own on the next Northwestern possession to set the offense up near midfield.

Pirates pillage Buccaneers in TRC matchup

Riverside scored early and often Friday in a decisive 51-7 road victory over Covington in a Three Rivers Conference matchup.

The Pirates have now won eight consecutive games and improve to 8-1 on the season (6-0). Covington drops to 0-9 (0-6).

Riverside wraps up its regular season next week with a home game against Milton Union that will decide the winner of the TRC. It’s the third straight year the Pirates conclude the regular season against Milton Union with a conference championship at stake, but Riverside was not about to come out flat-footed, looking past winless Covington on Friday night.

The Pirates put points on the board with every offensive possession and raced out to a 42-0 halftime lead.

Dominik Stotler scored three touchdown on the game — two rushing and one receiving — and Gavin Orsborne threw three touchdown passes and rushed for another.

Tigers score early, often in rout of Cardinals

A potent ground-and-pound attack powered West Liberty-Salem to a 56-14 runaway victory on over Triad in an Ohio Heritage Conference game.

The Tigers improve to 8-1 (3-1). Triad falls to 1-7 (1-3).

WL-S rushed for six touchdowns, amassed 274 yards rushing as a team and saw four different players find the end zone on the ground. The Tigers were powered by a 35-point second quarter outburst that also featured a kickoff return for touchdown as they raced out to a 49-8 halftime lead.