Eastwood’s Brock Messinger and Andre Lewis take down Genoa’s Jaxson Magnone. (Lee Welch | Sentinel-Tribune)
By Nicholas Huenefeld
Special to the Sentinel-Tribune
PEMBERVILLE — Kevin Lewis rushed for four touchdowns as the Eastwood football team outscored Genoa 28-6 in the second half on Friday to produce a come-from-behind 42-27 victory on Freedom Field at Jerry Rutherford Stadium.
“I did pretty well, but I can’t give all the credit to myself,” Lewis said. “My linemen played a big role in that. On three of my four touchdowns, I didn’t get touched at all. I just ran it in. I have to give credit to my linemen for that.”
The Eagles (9-1, 6-1 NBC) compiled 224 yards over their four full drives in the second half. They capped it off in record-breaking fashion as Andre Lewis caught a 26-yard touchdown pass from Drew Luidhardt on a jailbreak play, putting Eastwood up 42-27 with 2:46 left.
Three school records were broken on the play, beginning with Luidhardt recording his 27th touchdown pass of the season. On top of that, Lewis became the program’s all-time single season and career leader in touchdown receptions.
“It was great,” Eastwood coach Sam Cotterman said. “We had (the records) in our mind, but we were running the ball so well. They started to pinch us inside and squeeze like crazy, so we knew the jailbreak was going to be open, gave it to them, the tackle got a good block out there, and it went for a touchdown.”
A big part of that second half success was the responsive effort from Luidhardt, who went 8-for-10 for 123 yards passing over the final 24 minutes to overcome a string of four consecutive incompletions to end the first half, which included back-to-back interceptions on Eastwood’s third and fourth drives.
“One of the best things about Drew is that he’s very next-play driven,” Cotterman said. “He doesn’t let things get too high or too low. He just needed to calm down. He’s been very accustomed to making big plays all the time or throwing it deep, and his judgment got away from him a little bit there.
“On the first interception, I think he just freaked out a little bit, but this is his first year as a starting quarterback, and he’s come a long way throughout the year. I’m sure he’ll learn a lot from this game.”
Genoa took advantage of those two interceptions, scoring two touchdowns over the final 3:31 of the first half to take a 21-14 lead into the break.
“All my guys backed me up,” Luidhardt said. “I had a rough first half, made some horrible decisions. The coaches never gave up on me. My teammates never gave up on me. They made the plays for me, I just had to run the offense.
“Kevin Lewis and Cam Schumaker did a great job running the ball. My guys backed me up, and that’s what I needed.”
Lewis and Schumaker both punched it in from one yard out in the third quarter, which gave the Eagles a 28-21 lead. The Eagles then got a quick stop, which included a nice pooch punt from Genoa’s Myles Mollenhauer in a bad snap.
“We came out and wanted to pass the ball originally because that’s worked for us in the past,” Lewis said. “We threw two interceptions, so they shut that down. We had to convert to running the ball. We’re not just a passing team. We can run the ball, too, and we took advantage of it.”
That’s when Luidhardt really shined, as the junior quarterback completed five passes for first downs to four different players on the ensuing drive to put the Eagles up by a pair of touchdowns.
On three consecutive plays, he had a 16-yard pass to Dayquan Oliver, a 14-yard dart to Schumaker and a 13-yard strike to Kevin Lewis, who added a two-yard run on the ensuing play.
Luidhardt then completed an 11-yard pass to Brock Messinger before dishing a 24-yard shovel pass to Schumaker, who took it down to Genoa’s three-yard line.
Kevin Lewis finished off the drive from three yards out, completing the nine-play, 84-yard trek in just under four minutes.
“We expect that out of Kevin,” Cotterman said. “He did a great job. We’ve thrown the ball a lot lately and nobody thinks that we can run the ball, but we’re pretty solid up front.
“The guys did a good job. Logan Perry stepped up and did a good job with Ethan Recker out. We knew we could run the ball, and fortunately the kids performed.”
The Comets (6-4, 4-3 NBC) answered with a six-play, 59-yard touchdown drive, but the extra point was blocked as Eastwood remained ahead 35-27 with 4:38 left.
Eastwood proceeded to use a six-play, 68-yard drive that broke the records. On the drive, Luidhardt had a 39-yard scamper to give the Eagles possession inside Genoa’s 30, which also forced the Comets to use their three timeouts before the drive ended with the catch from Andre Lewis.
“Ultimately, I think it was about not turning the ball over and then our defense taking a stand,” Cotterman said. “Our defense goes out there, takes a stand, and we get the ball back. I know that we only scored 14 points in the first half, but we threw two interceptions, gave them short field position and then didn’t stop them.
“If we don’t throw those interceptions, I have no doubt that we score on those two drives, too. We were stopping ourselves. Ultimately, everyone said (we had) good adjustments at halftime. We didn’t make any adjustments other than not throwing interceptions, keeping the ball and tightening up on defense.”
Kevin Lewis finished with 18 carries for 76 yards as Eastwood ran for 159 yards as a team. Luidhardt completed 13-of-19 passes for 169 yards, while Andre Lewis had three catches for 46 yards .
Hunter Lauer made several key catches for the Eagles, including an 18-yard haul on a fourth down from Genoa’s 21 on Eastwood’s first drive of the second half, setting up a game-tying score. He finished with 39 yards on four receptions.
The Eagles will now prepare for a home playoff game against Archbold next week, and Cotterman said his team has a lot of work to do.
“I didn’t think we came out ready to play in the first half and the kids see that,” he said. “They’re very smart. I think they’re going to learn a lot from this, and it’s very fortunate for us to learn on a win than the other way around.”
