Knights blitz Cougars in rout

There are times when polar opposites can infer ends of a visible spectrum. Much to the lament of Lake Catholic on Oct. 10 against visiting North Coast League powerhouse Akron Hoban, polar opposites on this evening might as well have inferred the distance between Earth and Jupiter.

The Knights (7-0, 2-0) put on a clinic, scoring four touchdowns in a 5-minute, 29-second span in the second quarter to blow open a 49-0 victory over the Cougars (4-3, 1-1).

It marked Lake’s first shutout since Week 10 of the 2012 season to Notre DameCathedral Latin and just its second since 2003.

Lake commendably navigated a meatgrinder the last four weeks, shutting out Cardinal Mooney, 28-0, turni ng away rival NDCL, 37-17, and playing Akron SVSM tough in a 10-7 setback.

There was no such good fortune to be had on this occasion, though.

“They’re a very good football team, and they’re wellcoached,” Lake coach Scott O’Donnell said.

“And they are good. We knew they were good. We need to play better. Obviously, with the turnovers and the things that we did — and we will. We will play better next week. We need to get our guys better. They’re a very good football team, and I’m not going to take anything away from them. But we need to play better.”

The opposites were loud and clear from the opening half:

• Hoban enjoyed a 312-104 yards advantage.

• Hoban had nine plays of 10 yards or more, and Lake had six — five of which came on the final drive of the first half down, 35-0.

• Hoban went missed field goal, TD, TD, TD, TD, TD on its possessions. Lake went punt, punt, punt, punt, fumble, end of half.

• Hoban ran 34 first-half plays for an average of 9.2 yards per play from scrimmage, and Lake ran 25 for an average of 4.2.

• Hoban had a stretch of 75 seconds between a 44-yard Todd Sibley TD run and a 43-yard TD pass from Danny Clark to Jonah Morris in the second quarter. Lake went about 13 minutes of game time between first downs.

“I’m very pleased. They have a heck of a team,” Knights coach Tim Tyrrell said of Lake. “It was just an off night for them. I still think they’re a great football team. Sometimes the score doesn’t always show that, but they’re going to bounce back and they’re going to win some games the rest of the year.

“We were on tonight. It was just one of those games.”

The most impressive Hoban march of the bunch came bridging the first and second quarters. Lake’s Chad Stalnaker had a nice directional punt downed at the 1, but the Knights embarked on a 13-play, 99-yard drive, which was capped by an 18-yard TD pass from Clark to Anthony Christian. It took 6:39 off the clock in a game in which the Cougars were in need of controlling clock and keeping Ohio State recruits Clark and Sibley and an explosive offense on the sideline.

The second half commenced just as auspiciously, as a fumble led to a short field for Hoban from the Lake 6, and Sibley punched it in from the 4 for his third touchdown of the game and 11th of the fall.

One bright spot for the Cougars was Christian Topazio-Ackley, who had five catches for 75 yards and contributed a 13-yard run on a jet sweep in the first quarter.

While Lake came in banged

up on defense, O’Donnell was having none of that as an excuse as the Cougars face another massive undertaking in Week 8 with a trip to take on Benedictine.

“That’s not how we think,” O’Donnell said. “The next guy is in, and we expect to come out here and battle.

“It’s plain and simple.”

Football