The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Lorain, Westlake partake in first grid scrimmage
Slowly but surely, the pieces are coming together for Lorain and Westlake’s football teams.
Aug. 6, both teams headed out to First Federal Lakewood Stadium for their first scrimmage.
The Demons and Rangers provided two types of playstyles for the Titans, which Titans coach Damion Creel thought was useful for his growing team.
“I think (the scrimmage) was up and down. I am proud of the kids of how they competed,” he said. “We saw a finessed team in Westlake, and we saw a team that wanted to run it down their throat in Lakewood. We responded well with different styles.”
When comparing the scrimmages from theirs in 2021, Creel thought Lorain made great strides.
“Last year, we were in a situation where once we got punched in the mouth, we didn’t punch back,” Creel said. “Today, we saw that when we got punched in the mouth, we punched right back. That is what we wanted to see from our kids.”
The bright spot on the offense was running back John Salamone, who is fully healthy from a knee injury and is proving to become a big contributor to Lorain’s offense.
“We knew that he could (be effective in the backfield),” Creel said. “We knew that he could do it last year. Unfortunately, he had that injury. He is back healthy. He is going to be a focal point in our offense. He is a hell of a kid and a hell of a player.”
Titans quarterback Joseph Wyatt saw action as well on both ends of the gridiron.
“I think that he did a lot of great things. The thing that I liked the most is his temperament,” Creel said.
“He didn’t get too high, nor did he get too low. He is not happy on how he played defensively. … From an offensive standpoint, every read that we needed him to make, he made.”
While the reads he made were on point, the connection with the receivers were hit-or-miss. Creel plans to find a solution.
“Sometimes (getting the ball out) has to do with the protection, or sometimes with the route of the receivers. There is a lot of things that we have to clean up. We will check the tape out and correct those things,” he said.
Westlake saw great success in the trenches on offense and defense. The defensive front spent a lot of times in Lakewood’s backfield to rush passes or stuff ball carriers.
Westlake running back Will Ostrowski ran hard for the Demons, scoring at least one touchdown against the Rangers’ and Titans’ defenses. Coach Jason Hall gave credit to the offensive line for creating the holes up front.
“Will (Ostrowski) does a great job,” he said. “I was super impressed with our (offensive line) today. They made great strides in the last week. Overall, I thought that we had some consistency both sides of the ball.”
Sophomore quarterback Sam Brucchieri started for Westlake in his first full contact reps against foreign competition.
“I thought Sam (Brucchieri) did great today. He is a sophomore. I thought that he grew up today,” Hall said. “This was his first real live varsity action. I thought he handled (quarterback) well. He had some good balls, some bad balls, but I’m super pleased.”
Lorain was originally supposed to host John Marshall on Aug. 5, but was canceled due to a lack of players from John Marshall.