Eastwood sophomore Cam Schumaker outruns Archbold’s Ethan Bowman (42) on his way to the end zone. (Lee Welch | Sentinel-Tribune)
By Nicholas Huenefeld
Special to the Sentinel-Tribune
PEMBERVILLE — Cam Schumaker did it all for the Eastwood football team on Friday night, scoring four touchdowns in the first half in three different ways to highlight a 41-0 win over Archbold in a Division V, Region 18 first round playoff matchup inside Jerry Rutherford Stadium.
“He’s just a player,” Eastwood coach Sam Cotterman said. “He’s tough as nails. Sometimes I forget he’s only a sophomore. He was on the field a lot for us last year as a freshman on special teams.
“We just tried to get the ball in his hands. He’s pretty versatile. He can catch, run and block. He does everything for us. When he gets some bonuses on defense, that’s awesome to see.”
Schumaker had a 12-yard touchdown run, as well as 36-yard and 11-yard touchdown receptions over his team’s first six drives. Then, he capped the first half with a 68-yard interception return, snatching the ball and beating every defender down the left sideline for his fourth score.
Having scored rushing, receiving and on defense, the only question was whether or not he asked to play some quarterback in the second half to throw a touchdown.
Schumaker laughed.
“That would have been something, but nope,” he said. “Drew Luidhardt does a great job. I’m happy where I’m at.”
Archbold (6-5) surprised the Eagles on the game’s opening kickoff, successfully recovering an onside kick, but Eastwood forced a three-and-out defensively.
Then, after a swing pass to Luidhardt’s left wasn’t caught, officials ruled that it was thrown behind the line of scrimmage and subsequently a fumble, which Archbold recovered for a first down at the 37.
Once again, however, Eastwood’s defense held strong as Andre Lewis intercepted a pass on the fifth play of Archbold’s drive, leaping to grab the ball at the two-yard line on second and goal.
“I was proud of our defense,” Cotterman said. “(Archbold) had a tremendous onside kick, which I thought couldn’t have gone better for them. For our defense to (force a stop) there and (on the next drive after the turnover), that was what we didn’t do last week.
“Last week we made some mistakes early and our defense didn’t hold. This week they did. I’m proud of the kids for learning from that and overcoming that adversity early on and continuing to play with that relentless attitude.”
After the interception, Eastwood drove 98 yards over seven plays in just over three minutes as Schumaker capped the drive with a 12-yard touchdown run. The Eagles had a 21-yard pass to Hunter Lauer and also completed a pass on a flea flicker during the drive.
Kevin Lewis recorded Eastwood’s second interception on the next drive, setting up a one-play, 36-yard offensive drive for the Eagles that saw Schumaker haul in a pass from Luidhardt for a 14-0 lead with 2:45 left in the first quarter.
Over the next four Archbold drives, Eastwood forced a punt, a turnover on downs and two more interceptions.
Meanwhile, Luidhardt had a one-yard touchdown run early in the second quarter, which was followed by a highlight reel 22-yard touchdown reception on the next drive from DayQuan Oliver, who juked a defender and then got past the final defenders with a spin move inside the five as Eastwood led 27-0.
“We were just consistent,” Cotterman said. “They did a really good job of squeezing on us inside. We like to run gap schemes, so we had to try to loosen them up a little bit with what we call a buck play. A little outside to loosen them up and then some RPO stuff to get the receivers the ball.
“We have tremendous receivers. Some of those catches Andre (Lewis) made tonight … it’s to the point we expect it, but man he can get up there. Our offense has been doing that all year long, and I was glad they could do it again tonight.”
On Eastwood’s sixth possession, which ended in their fifth-straight touchdown, Luidhardt shoveled it to Schumaker for an 11-yard score.
Schumaker then intercepted a pass and returned it all the way on Archbold’s next possession as time expired in the half.
Eastwood compiled 317 yards of offense over 29 plays, or 10.9 per play, in the first half. Defensively, the Eagles allowed just 90 yards in the first half and held the Blue Streaks to just 2.7 yards per play over the entire game.
“We think we have a chance to go far, and we wanted to come out here tonight and prove ourselves,” Schumaker said. “Our defense did a great job shutting out Archbold, and we’re excited to see what we can do (going forward).”
Defensively, Eastwood forced five turnovers, which included interceptions by Schumaker, Andre Lewis, Kevin Lewis and Brock Messinger while posting its fifth shutout of the season.
“They’ve been doing that all year for us,” Cotterman said of his secondary’s performance. “We have a lot of strengths on this team, but obviously our skill guys are up there, and a lot of them are upperclassmen. We expect them to do that stuff.”
Luidhardt finished 11-of-13 passing for 217 yards and three touchdowns. Brayden Brown, who had 10 carries in the second half, led the team with 67 yards on the ground.
Schumaker and Andre Lewis each had three receptions for 77 and 75 yards, respectively. Oliver chipped in two catches for 32 yards.
Eastwood (10-1) advances to the regional quarterfinal round at Creston Norwayne (10-1) next Friday. The Bobcats defeated Delta 45-42 in the opening round.
“I’m just proud of them,” Cotterman said. “They put themselves in this position. They’re excited about (what they did) tonight, and they’re excited for another week.”
This is Eastwood’s sixth-straight playoff appearance. Friday night represented the 20th postseason win in program history over 36 total contests.
