The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Blue Devils romp over Lions for 4-0 start
Through four weeks, it’s been as easy as 1-2-3 for Wickliffe.
THE SCORE WICKLIFFE 48, ORANGE 12
Behind a 457-yard offensive attack — 405 on the ground — the Blue Devils romped past visiting Orange on Sept. 17, 48-12, to improve to 4-0 on the season.
Much like in their 45-13 win over Cuyahoga Heights on Sept. 11, it didn’t take Wickliffe long to rack up those numbers.
The Blue Devils reached the end zone seven of the eight times they had the ball. Averaging 13.1 yards on 35 total plays, they had possession less than 15 minutes.
Senior running back Isaiah Bolon, who wears jersey No. 1, carried 6 times for 85 yards and two touchdowns, and had two receptions for 52 yards.
Fellow senior and Division I recruit Chase Fortkamp, the area’s rushing leader who wears jersey No. 2, ran 11 times for 127 yards and four scores.
And No. 3, senior QB Mason Bala, accrued 176 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries, and also passed for 52 yards.
Paced by its triple-threat backfield, Wickliffe’s 7 scoring drives lasted 5, 5, 8, 3, 2, 4, and 3 plays.
“We really love the uppace tempo,” Bala said. “We barely even huddle anymore. We just want to keep it going, pound it down their throats. We’re just relentless, we don’t want to stop.”
Fortkamp remembered his freshman year, when Orange hammered the Blue Devils, 42-6, and last season, when the Lions dealt them a 28-14 defeat.
“From the start of this week, we knew we wanted to come out and get them,” Fortkamp said. “Especially revenge for last year, close game right down to the end. We really wanted to come back and give it them.” A pair of two-yard TD runs by Fortkamp, a 10-yarder by Bolon, and 42-yard scamper down the sideline by Bala staked Wickliffe to a 28-0 lead in the second quarter.
Orange got its only stop later in the frame on an interception by senior Tyler Hoffman, who caught a 26yard scoring pass from senior Zak Basharat just before halftime to make it 28-6.
Bolon added a 9-yard scoring burst after halftime, and Fortkamp tallied from 33 and 65 yards to give him 622 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns on the season.
Operating behind a big, veteran offensive line that controls the line of scrimmage and creates spacious running lanes for the threeheaded monster in the backfield, game nights are relatively stress-free for Wickliffe coach Marce Porcello.
“It’s great,” Porcello said.
“We line up on the ball, and just kind of call plays as we go. We’ve got a lot of weapons. That offensive line makes us go. They’re veteran guys, they put in a lot of work in the offseason, and they take a lot of pride in playing physical.”
Orange (0-2), playing just its second game after a late start, got a short rushing score by Basharat on the game’s final play. Basharat passed for 115 yards, Greg Beard ran for 116, and Hoffman caught 8 passes for 101 yards as the a Lions finished with 248 yards. “The number one goal tonight was to give a fullgame effort,” Orange coach Adam Bechlem said. “I think we did that. We knew we had a big challenge up against a good, experienced, well-coached team. We fought to the very last second to put one in the end zone, and that’s something to build on.”
Wickliffe will put its unbeaten mark on the line at Independence in the Battle of the Blue Devils on Sept. 25.