by OBERLIN, Ohio – The Firelands Falcons got their first win of the season against the Brookside Cardinals by a score of 40-20. On their first drive, the Falcons found success on the ground, with Liam Tobicash, Brett Beury, and D’Mari Campbell each receiving multiple carries. Campbell put the finishing touches on the drive as he found the end zone from 14 yards out to give Firelands a 7-0 lead.
On the next drive for Firelands, quarterback Tobicash found receiver Andrew Pawlak through the air for a seven-yard gain. Two plays later, Tobicash found his other receiver, Beury, for 27 yards, setting him up for a four-yard touchdown run to give Firelands a 13-0 lead.
Brookside was not deterred, however, as running back Mason Gainer got the ball and ran for 35 yards in three plays. His running helped set up quarterback Mason Waechter to find receiver Andy Bilczo for the score, cutting down the Falcons’ lead to 13-7.
Firelands got the ball back and did what they seemed to always do in this game, answer back. They ran the ball on 11 of 14 plays on their next drive with the trio of running backs Tobicash, Campbell, and Buery. The drive ended with running back Campbell finding the end zone again, making it 21-7 in favor of Firelands.
Brookside regained possession and was able to answer back on their next drive. The drive saw a nicer mix of running and passing, capped off with another Waechter to Bilczo connection, this time from 40 yards to trim the lead to 21-13.
With just under a minute left in the half, Firelands got the ball in great field position after a long kick return from Caleb Crawford. After Pawlak ran the ball 17 yards, Tobicash found Beury from 26 yards out to give Firelands a 27-13 lead going into halftime.
Following an interception by Firelands’ Jonah Weber, the Falcons started their next drive with great field position. The Falcons ran the ball and connected through the air twice before Carson Lima found the end zone from 9 yards out, extending the Falcons’ lead to 33-13.
Both teams then exchanged punts and turnovers on downs on their next possessions. On the first play of the next drive, Tobicash made one of his few mistakes, throwing an interception to Brookside’s Ethan Blythe, giving the ball back to Brookside with great field position. On the first play of the drive, running back Waechter ran the ball from 12 yards out for a touchdown, trimming the lead to 33-20 in favor of Firelands.
On their next possession, the Falcons got the ball back and responded. Campbell ran the ball 4 of 6 plays, including a 34-yard touchdown run to give Firelands a 40-20 lead. This would be the final scoring drive of the game, with the final score 40-20.
In the victory, Firelands finds their first win of the year, improving to 1-3 overall and 1-0 in Lorain County-8 Conference play. The Falcons will hit the road as they play at Oberlin next week. As for Brookside, they fall to 0-4, 0-1 in Lorain County-8 Conference play and will host Keystone next week.
Player of the game: Firelands running back D’Mari Campbell, who ran the ball 14 times for 122 yards and 3 touchdowns. He also caught the ball twice for 16 yards. When the ball found his hands, good things happened all night for Firelands, as he was a big reason Firelands got off to a great start in their LC8 play.
