The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Bulldogs dominate Rangers
When an offense like Olmsted Falls’ triple option gets rolling it can be a hard thing to stop.
Bryan Morgan’s young North Ridgeville squad found that out the hard way in a 49-19 Week 5 loss.
“In the first five weeks we’ve seen a Wiing-T and a flexbone (offense),” Morgan said. “So it’s tough to play, but a lot of it has to do with our guys making first contact five yards down the field. They won up front the entire night and if we want to be successful we need to make sure that we push back.”
The defeat snaps a three game Rangers win streak that was their first of that length since 2015. Olmsted Falls moves to 4-1 with the victory and are still very much alive in the Southwestern Conference title race after Avon Lake suffered a defeat at the hands of Berea-Midpark.
Bulldogs slot back Rocco Conti set the tone early with a six-yard touchdown run ending Falls’ first drive of the game.
After a North Ridgeville three-and-out, Conti scored again, catching a 35-yard pass from Charlie Ciolek. Conti finished the first half with eight carries for 84 yards and three rushing scores.
“I don’t think anyone can beat us when we (play like we did tonight,” Conti said. “When we don’t turn the ball over, possess the ball on offense we’re hard to stop. And when our defense is playing the way it did we’re even harder to stop.”
Olmsted Falls scored on its first five possessions of the game. When they do that, they’re almost impossible to beat with their ball control offense.
“The first couple weeks of the season we weren’t executing the way we wanted to offensively,” Olmsted Falls head coach Tom DeLuca said. “We were turning the ball over too much. So we really dialed in this week of practice on being sharp and our goal was to come out and execute as best we could.”
As a team the Bulldogs ran for 308 yards on 28 carries in the first half, leading to five touchdowns. That’s 11.4 yards per carry and a touchdown every five plays.
Ciolek was responsible for 132 of those yards. For much of the first half, Falls held the ball as the North Ridgeville’s offense struggled mightily.
Outside of a 67-yard touchdown run from Jacob Madis, the Rangers managed just 77 yards. Half of those came from Madis’ arm as the quarterback was 4/7 for 34 yards in the half.
Madis threw for two scores in the second half — including an 80-yard bomb to Mason Worcester that stopped the running clock He finished the game 10for-14 with 176 yards and two touchdown passes.
“I didn’t think that our guys quit. I think they did a good job of being able to stay in the game,” Morgan said. “I think it comes down to having some really great kids on the team. At halftime it (the mood wasn’t) woe is me. It was, let’s go out there and get better.”
Olmsted Falls now sits in the driver’s seat of the Southwestern Conference as Avon Lake lost to Berea-Midpark. The Bulldogs host Elyria in Week 5 before closing out their schedule with games against Avon, Avon Lake and Berea-Midpark in four of their last five games.