Euclid, Chardon, Riverside post wins

Chardon and Riverside posted big Western Reserve Conference wins over Mayfield and Madison, respectively, while Euclid had no problems in a victory over visiting Elyria.

If the Greater Cleveland Conference contest between Euclid and visiting Elyria on Sept. 22 was indeed the final varsity football game to ever take place at venerable old (and newly turfed) Sparky DiBiasio Stadium, the Panthers closed the grand old lady down in a style worthy of all the great teams and players throughout Euclid history.

Dominating from the start in what was the Panthers’ homecoming game and first home game of the season, Euclid blitzed out to a 47-7 halftime lead and went on to post a 54-28 victory over the Pioneers to improve to 4-1 overall and 2-0 in the GCC.

On the same field that Euclid greats Robert Smith, Pepe Pearson and Tony Fisher made names for themselves and set rushing records, senior Ronald Lee delighted the home crowd by rushing for a staggering 309 yards and three touchdowns on a mere 12 carriesin one and a half quarters.

Senior Arquon Bush prevented a would-be firstquarter Elyria touchdown by knocking the ball away from the Pioneer ballcarrier at the goal line, allowing a teammate to recover a fumble in what Coach Jeff Rotsky termed the “play of the game.”

If that wasn’t enough for the Cincinnati-bound senior, he also tackled an Elyria callcarrier in the end zone for a safety and caught three passes for 84 yards and two touchdowns.

Coach DiBiasio would be beaming with pride.

“This is an emotional night for a lot of people,” Rotsky said. “This is the last game at Sparky. A lot of legends have come through here, so to be able to tie the past with the present and the future in a couple weeks when we move to our new stadium, it’s really exciting.

“Our kids came out and played well tonight, but we were sloppy. We caused some good turnovers, but we’ve got to stop turning the ball over ourselves. Ronald ran well — 309 yards on 12 carries. I haven’t seen that in a long time. So, pretty exciting day for the kids.”

Euclid recovered fumbles on each of Elyria’s first three possessions, including the touchdown-saving play by Bush. The Panthers reached the end zone on seven of its nine first-half possessions, with Lee tallying three times, Bush scoring twice on passes from Cee Jay Hale and Hale running for a score and throwing for a third to Dre’Von Lindsay.

The Euclid defense finished with four forced turnovers and held Elyria to 51 yards rushing but was hurt occasionally by the Pioneers making big plays with the passing game, in what Rotsky described as “lapses.”

The Panthers’ offensive line opened up huge holes for Lee, who used his speed and deft moves to run through the Elyria defense in his short time on the field. His final carry was a twisting, turning 87yard weave through helpless Pioneer defenders for a