by It was a cold, rainy, and windy night tonight at Lakewood stadium for the interconference game between the Lakewood Rangers and the Valley Forge Patriots. Valley Forge were coming off a loss, while the Rangers were looking to defend their ongoing four game win streak. The Rangers won the toss and elected to receive the ball first to start the game.
The Patriots started their drive on their 30-yard line and looked to respond to the Rangers first score. A handoff to Lucas Schillinger for 18 yards started the day for the Patriots and put them just shy of mid field. The Patriots then started to lay the ground work for some misdirection on the ground by running a qb sneak and a backfield pass that forced a third down look where they ran another quarterback run. On the next play, another quarterback run was called, but it was a late end around to Jacob Schillinger who took the ball up field for a huge 42-yard touchdown tying up the game.
The Rangers led the game 7-7 when they got the ball back. Following this, Lakewood would go three and out and turn over the ball after a fake punt, and Valley Forge similarly went three and out, but punted the ball back to the Rangers. Lakewood then came out in a Wildcat look that featured Lukas Stoll and Simmie Bolden. Stoll and Bolden seemed to go back and forth running the ball after this, converting first down after first down. The two rushers would take the ball 80-yards by themselves when Stoll found his way into the end zone behind a blocking Bolden. This brought the Ranger lead up to 14-7 with 9:17 seconds left in the first.
The defense on both teams were not allowing the run game to work with ease and Lakewood was able to force an immediate three and out. This was short lived, as Otto Wilhelmy dropped back to pass and lost possession of the ball in the backfield which was eventually recovered by Kaiden Hagel of the Patriots. This set Valley Forge up in good field position, but the Ranger defense forced another fourth down. The Patriots decided to go for it here, but the pass was incomplete and the Rangers took over possession at their own 36-yard line.
After a gain of 13-yards by Bolden, the Patriots ran another wildcat qb keep to Stoll who took the ball all the way down field, beating the last man with a nice open field juke, and scoring for his second touchdown of the night. After the extra point the Rangers lead 21-7. The Patriots would receive the ball back and the clock would run out, finishing the first half.
Valley Forge was back to receive the halftime kick, and returner Michal Fiszer fielded a grounder to him around his own 25-yard line, and took it the entire length of the field, beating out the defense and scoring a touchdown. The Patriots went for the two-point conversion and were unsuccessful, moving the score to 21-13 Lakewood.
With the ball back again, Lakewood continued their wildcat set up, and just two plays in, Lukas Stoll kept the ball for another designed run to the left, avoided being pushed out of bounds, and reversed his run all the way across the field for his third touchdown of the night. After the extra point, Rangers led 28-13.
Lakewood would quickly get the ball back here and continue their dominant run game. They now started to get James Dissell involved in the backfield, who was just as efficient at getting first downs and moving the ball down the field. He even had a clutch run on a third and long that positioned the Rangers on the 2-yard line. Dissell then got the rushing touchdown up the middle the play after, pushing the Rangers lead to 35-13.
Valley Forge was having a very hard time up until this point getting the ball moving on the ground, so they decided to change things up a little bit. The rain had died down enough for the Patriots to start airing the ball out down field. This proved to be a successful tactic as Purcel found Jadan Gill over the middle for a wide-open completion that was turned into a 53-yard passing touchdown after a great run by Gill. After a missed extra point, Lakewood led Valley Forge 35-19 with 2:32 to go in the third. This was a great strike for the Patriots, but it came too late in the game.
Lakewood from here would run the clock down with their efficient run game, which earned them first downs as they pleased. Simmie Bolden took over on this drive, moving the ball up field practically by himself, and punching it in for a touchdown after the Rangers drained a good seven minutes off the clock. The point after was good and Lakewood now led 42-19.
With one more shot at scoring, Valley Forge looked to the air again and found Jadan Gill again over the middle, who unfortunately fumbled the ball after the completion. The ball was recovered by Tye Taylor of the Rangers, and Lakewood ran the clock down.
The player of the game for Lakewood was Lukas Stoll, who allowed zero completions to his defensive assignments, as well as scoring three touchdowns, and being the engine of the Rangers offense.
The players of the game for Valley Forge were Nate Abreu, who was involved on almost every tackle and stopped big plays before they happened, and Justin Purcel who kept the offense moving in the air and on the ground.
Valley Forge moves to 1-8 and heads back home to host Normandy for their final game of the season next week. Lakewood moves to 8-1 and heads to North Olmsted for their final game of the year.
