The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
KENSTON ROLLS
Kenston takes the field for its Week 4 game at North on Sept. 10. The Bombers dominated, 40-13. High school football coverage begins
The Kirtland football team volunteered to move up to the CVC Chagrin Division this season. If Kirtland’s performance Sept. 10 is any indication, by season’s end, the big-school Chagrin Division might petition to send the Hornets back to where they came from in the small-school Valley Division.
Kirtland scored on all five of its f irst-half possessions to open a 33-0 lead before cruising to a 33-7 victory over a West Geauga team that was considered one of the preseason front-runners for the Chagrin Division title.
With the win in its Chagrin Division opener, Kirtland improves to 3-0 overall and extends its winning streak to 44 games, which is the fourth-longest winning streak in the nation.
“This was fun,” senior twoway starter Mason Rus said. “We showed what we can do in this conference.”
They did so with the subtlety of an uppercut from Mike Tyson.
Kirtland piled up 525 yards of offense to 195 for West Geauga. Most of the Wolverines’ yardage came in the second half, as Kirtland led, 33-0, at the break and to that point had allowed only three West G first downs.
The second half as little more than a formality, though the Wolverines scored late in the third quarter to stop the running-clock situation.
“I tell you this, that team is a machine,” West Geauga coach Adam Sopkovich said of the Hornets. “They’re six-time state champions for a reason.”
A big turning point came on the first drive of the game when West G had Kirtland in a fourth-and-25 situation. But Gage Sullivan laid out for a 31-yard touchdown pass from Ramon Lescano for the first points of the game.
West Geauga was never at an advantage the rest of the game.
“I take my hat off to Sullivan. That kid is an absolute beast,” Sopkovich said.
Sullivan had five catches for 94 yards and that touchdown.
Tommy Gogolin ran for a 34-yard score and caught a 47-yard touchdown pass from Lescano. Lescano completed six of eight passes for 141 yards and two touchdowns.
Rus had two touchdown runs and a ton of tackles.
And that was all before halftime. About the only thing Kirtland didn’t do well was it missed two conversion kicks.
“The first half couldn’t have gone much better,” Coach Tiger LaVerde said. “We got off the field on third down when we needed to, and I think we scored on every possession.”
To their credit, the Wolverines (2-2, 0-1) played well in the second half. Senior quarterback Danny Stewart (14 of 28, 195 yards) engineered a drive that was capped by a David Fofana four-yard run near the end of the third quarter.
West G also got an interception near the end one by Torry Stazzone to thwart a
Kirtland drive in the fourth quarter. But West G struggled offensively all night and was held to zero yards rushing on 15 attempts.
“Our D-line pressured them out of the pocket all day,” Rus said. “Our defense played great, and our offense felt we could do what we wanted.”
Sopkovich credited the Kirtland defense.
“When it gets ugly early, it gets you off schedule of what you want to do,” Sopkovich said. “When you’re playing from behind and the clock is running, you’re running against time.”
West G was without AllOhio lineman Luca Gasbarrino (emergency root canal), but Sopkovich offered
no excuses.
“You have to take losses as a learning experience,” he said. “I wouldn’t want anyone else to teach me a lesson than Tiger LaVerde.”
West G plays Edgewood in Week 5, while Kirtland travels to Geneva in another CVC Chagrin battle after a successful first step against the Wolverines.
“We were preparing for this the whole time,” Gogolin said of CVC Chagrin play. “We were going to play that Westinghouse team (a game that was canceled last week), but we got that extra week. This was exciting because we’ve never played in the bigger division before. It’s exciting to get this win.”