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Chants of “GO LAKE!” would be heard all throughout the chilly September night, as the Cougars of Lake Catholic could not be caged. Senior quarterback Jaxon French and junior wideout and defensive back Aidan Fitzgerald propelled the contagious jubilance as Lake would handle North at home 28-7.
The elusive 6’3 man under center for the green and gray dropped Dippin’ Dots all over the field on Friday evening at Jerome T. Osborne Sr. Stadium. French did a masterful job at getting the North secondary to stay on their heels with his legs and that would open up his receivers. He had two touchdown tosses of 11 and 30. Who were those too? Two words, Aidan Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald would find the endzone for the first time at the 1:35 mark in the first quarter, but the second scoring drive did not feel meant to be at all. The always energetic Ranger student section continued to yell, “YOU CAN’T DO THAT!” after three penalties in a row for the Cougars. However, the Ranger’s could not corral the home team who were backed up fairly deep into their own territory. French would drop back in the pocket and find his go to deep ball threat Fitzgerald for a whopping 45 yards.
Later on, French would connect with Fitzgerald on a fade route toward the back left corner of the pylon for an 11 yard snag to put them up 14-0.
On the first possession in the third quarter for Jaxon and company, they were able to take advantage of an unsure North defense. Sophomore running back Gregory Thomas got his evening started with gains of four, nine, and eight. Not huge chunk plays, but ones that would lead to another touchdown pass for the senior quarterback. Once again he located Fitzgerald with another dime for a 30 yard touchdown grab.
Besides Aidan’s timely catches, he was also a big contributor on the opposite side of the ball. He was able to break up and nearly intercept two passes from North’s sophomore quarterback, Zach Rummel, who struggled mightily all night with 58 yards passing.
After a North touchdown run from Mo Morgan with 4:04 left in the third and the score at 21-7, Lake Catholic needed one more trip to the endzone to totally seal the deal. It would come following a few three and outs for both teams. At the 10:58 mark with Lake up against their side of the turf yet again, a small screen pass to Greg Thomas seemed to go nowhere. But, Thomas would not let the fans and his team down. He spun free from a North defender and would break free for 54 yards down the left sideline and that put the contest out of reach for good.
Lake would punch it in once more with 9:55 remaining on a 7 yard run by Carter Cantrell. Jaxon French would end his spectacular display of athleticism by going 15/22 248 and 2 TDs, while also adding on 51 yards on the ground on six carries.
Aidan Fitzgerald shined as well with 98 receiving yards on only 4 receptions.
Greg Thomas did his part as well, adding two catches for 66 yards and 31 rushing yards.
Head coach for Eastlake, Shawn Dodd spoke after last week’s win over Revere saying, “In both games, we really took it over in the second half. We just have to figure out the first half a little bit.” Unfortunately, this week North would not be able to figure anything out.
The offense could never find their stride as Rummel only completed 5 out of 13 pass attempts and the speedy Curtis Thomas was kept pretty quiet, zero yards rushing and 40 yards receiving.
Ryan Baer, who committed to Pittsburgh a few weeks ago prior to his senior season, left the game with an injury but would return shortly after.
1-2 Lake Catholic will ride a wave of confidence into next Friday’s matchup, as they go away once again to face University. The 2-1 Rangers will look to put their first loss of the season behind them as they take on conference foe Kenston next week.
Player of the Game: Jaxon French- 15/22 248 passing yards 2 TDs and 6 rushes for 51 yards
Jaxon French player of the week.