Lake junior wide receiver Xavier Scott outruns Genoa sophomore linebacker Alex Materni, but the Comets ultimately got their way during a 55-28 shootout win Friday at Jim Firestone Stadium. (Lee Welch | Sentinel-Tribune)
By Nicholas Huenefeld
Special to the Sentinel-Tribune
GENOA — The Lake football team outgained Genoa by 35 yards from the line of scrimmage on Friday at Jim Firestone Field, but the Comets grinded out a 55-28 win behind the rushing prowess of Luke Clement.
“From the 20 to 20, we’re pretty darn good, but we just make too many mistakes,” Lake coach Lane Bishop said. “At the end of the day, it’s on me to get us to execute and finish drives and stuff like that, and we’re not doing it. The buck stops with me. I have to do a better job.”
Clement rumbled for 220 yards on 21 carries with three touchdowns, including 138 yards on 13 totes in the first half. He anchored a rushing attack that produced 356 yards on 37 carries overall.
All three of the scores from Clement came in a second quarter that featured 41 points combined from the two teams.
“I wish I had more (to say about it), but we’re going to have to get back to the drawing board,” Bishop said. “We have really struggled against the run, so we’re going to have to check the schematics of things.”
When Genoa wasn’t grinding out yards on the ground, quarterback Myles Mollenhauer was utilizing the big-play ability of receiver Jaxon Magone.
The duo connected for a 20-yard touchdown strike to open the game’s scoring with 4:08 left in the opening quarter, and they linked up again for a 23-yard touchdown with 4:29 left in the third.
Meanwhile, Lake’s Carter Behlmer had a solid connection with his junior wide receiver, Gavin Kohlhofer.
After the Comets had taken a 13-0 lead following the first touchdown run of Clement, Behlmer found Kohlhofer for a 42-yard score, and the duo hooked up again for a 45-yard strike with 11:05 left in the fourth.
In total, Behlmer completed 21-of-33 passes for 305 yards, while Kohlhofer had eight receptions for 145 yards. Xavier Scott was the recipient of Behlmer’s third touchdown, a four-yard reception as time expired in the first half, which pulled Lake within 34-14.
“I think we have a really talented quarterback,” Bishop said. “He took care of the ball and put it where it needed to be. I think we had a lot of dropped passes and breakdowns in pass pro that kind of prevented us from taking more advantage from it.
“We have really darn good athletes. We just made way too many mistakes. That’s been the story of our past three weeks.”
Turnovers and penalties ultimately cost Lake a chance at competing against Genoa.
Of their 11 drives, the Flyers produced 470 yards on 72 plays, which included a seven-plus minute advantage in time of possession, but committed five turnovers, including two that really stung early in the third quarter.
After closing the first half with some momentum via Scott’s touchdown, the Flyers forced what turned out to be Genoa’s only punt of the game on the first drive of the second half.
On the ensuing offensive drive, Lake was driving with a first-and-10 at Genoa’s 41 and a chance to cut it to a two-score game, but a fumble resulted in a 60-yard touchdown for the Comets.
Once Lake got the ball back, they continued to move the ball, marching 79 yards, including a 28-yard strike from Behlmer to Scott on a fourth-and-10, but Scott was stripped at the one-yard line on that play, which resulted in a Genoa touchback.
The Comets then cemented the game with an 80-yard touchdown drive in just over one minute, capped by the 23-yard Mollenhauer-to-Magnone connection for a 48-14 lead.
The Flyers had nine penalties for 100 yards, including four unsportsmanlike calls, two false starts, a pair of holdings and one pass interference call.
Five of those penalties came over a one-minute stretch in the second quarter, including three on one play that resulted in a 45-yard gain for Genoa.
The Comets found the endzone on all five of their first half possessions, grinding out 239 yards on 24 plays in just 9:31 before finishing with 47 plays and 435 yards in just under 19 minutes of total possession.
Lake’s defense was able to make some plays late, forcing back-to-back turnovers on Genoa over the final two drives. Izyck Whalen and Grady Snoderly each recovered fumbles on those drives, and Whalen’s resulted in a 68-yard touchdown return.
Genoa improved to 4-1 overall, including 2-0 in NBC play.
Lake, meanwhile, fell to 2-3 (0-2 NBC) heading into next week’s matchup against Maumee. Their three losses have come to Genoa, Eastwood and Delta, a trio of teams that are a combined 13-2 overall.
“I think we’ve continued to fight,” Bishop said. “Our practices have still been intense. The tough thing that I continue to preach to these guys is that the opponents we’ve lost to have a combined two losses. I’m not making excuses for us, but it’s not like we’ve lost to poor football teams.”
