The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Lake rallies for win, hopes for playoffs
Cougars score 21 unanswered points to top Padua; they will need help
Lake Catholic football coach Scott O’Donnell feels like his team won a playoff game on Oct. 25.
Now his Cougars have to wait a few days to see if they will get a chance to participate in the playoffs.
Two fourth-quarter interceptions led to 21 answered points, leading Lake Catholic to a 41-33 victory over visiting Padua at Jerome T. Osborne Stadium.
The win gives the Cougars its best regular-season record (7-3) since 2011, and keeps alive their playoff hopes in Division III, Region 9.
According to JoeEitel.com, Lake Catholic is now 12th in Region 9. The top eight make the playoffs, so the Cougars need some help in secondlevel points and in the form of teams ahead of them losing on Oct. 26.
But the way O’Donnell looks at it, his team deserves a shot at Week 11.
“That was a playoff game right there,” O’Donnell said. “We knew it was going to be that. They’re in if they win, and we’ve got a shot if we win.
“God willing, let’s hope everything aligns and we end up in the eighth spot. Who knows?”
Lake Catholic looked like it was in trouble going into the fourth quarter after Padua freshman QB Jaxon French hit Crishawn Long for a 25-yard touchdown pass, the third time in the game the pair hooked up. That gave the Bruins a 3320 lead.
But then Lake Catholic’s defense stepped up.
After the Cougars opened the fourth quarter on a touchdown run by Aaron Leovic, junior Danny Walsh stepped in front of a French screen pass and gave Lake point-blank field position inside the Padua 5.
Four plays later, Matt Slowey gave his team a 3433 lead with a one-yard plunge.
On Padua’s next possession, Lake defensive lineman Colson Mueller laid out for a tipped ball and intercepted a pass.
That set up a touchdown run by Nate Rieple, thus completing a 21-point run.
Even when Padua (64) tried to answer, the defense stepped up, with Rieple sacking French to give Lake the ball one last time to kneel out the clock.
“The whole season we’ve said never put our heads down,” Mueller said of his team’s mentality when trailing, 33-20. “It’s just grind after that.”
Mueller said coaches have been “harping” on linemen to run after the play with the chance of getting a tackle from behind. He didn’t envision an interception, though.
“I stick my hands out and it falls in,” he said. “It was an amazing moment.”
Said Walsh of his big interception, “they had been running screens all day. I took a chance on that one and it paid off.”
Lake got another huge game from Rieple, who ran 32 times for 156 yards and two touchdowns. Couple that with his 234 yards and four touchdowns last week against NDCL, and the senior two-way standout has run for 390 yards and six touchdowns in the last two weeks.
“It’s huge,” Rieple said of his team’s performance. “We came back in the fourth. Our line pushed and we ran over them. We had some big plays and we finished.
Christian DeMitro had five catches for 96 yards, including a touchdown catch from Matt Slowey, who threw for 148 yards and a score.
Bringing his team together for a postgame talk and prayer, O’Donnell said the win typified the type of team the Cougars have, and told the players - especially the seniors - to remember this feeling.
“They deserve it,” O’Donnell said of a playoff opportunity, and I hope they get the opportunity. It’s been a pleasure and a blast to coach these guys all year long.
“Absolutely. I think this is a boost for the program and a boost for the team.”