Lake Catholic Cougars Tactical Excellence Defeats The Elyria Catholic Panthers 49-6

With the fall weather creeping in on us, we start to get into the best time of the year. High School Football in Ohio begin to raise the stakes even more. And tonight I got the grand opportunity to cover the 7-0 Lake Catholic Cougars take on the Elyria Catholic Panthers. It was a fun experience to get to be a part of that atmosphere and I will cover some key plays and takeaways from tonight’s game!

1st Quarter

The Cougars open up the drive with a 16-yard passing touchdown after a successful string of pass plays and a few penalties against them. The discipline they showed and the ability to not be rattled by some tight defense early on and loss of yards explains why they are where they are at the moment. The Panthers receive the ball and Conor Pietrus for the Panthers takes it all the way home for the 79-yard TD on the first play of the first drive for Elyria. Unfortunately, they did not connect on the extra point, the score was 7-6, panthers. Cougars followed that up with a 36-yard passing touchdown to Cross Nimmo. It was beginning to look like an elite back-and-forth contest. The crowd was just waiting to see what happened next.

2nd Quarter

George Csepegi runs it into the endzone from the 2-yard line after Ace Peterlin and Cross Nimmo start the quarter with 2 vital receptions to put them in great field position. Score 21-6 Cougars.  The Panthers have no luck on their drive and that leads to a punt and another passing TD this time to Patrick Radigan from the 6-yard line. Cougars were out there showing how many threats they have on the field at any given moment. Another 3 and out leads to a handoff to DJ Sears the tight end, after trailing the field on a 60 yard drive leads to 35-6 score at halftime. This game took a turn for the worst. And there was one more half of football left. The end of half score was 35-6. The Cougars got the ball back and got to a good enough field position to try for a field goal to go up by 32 but it was a failed attempt. Needless to say, they were going for the jugular.

3rd Quarter

The Panthers start the drive with a pick to Ace Peterlin who takes it back to their own 19 yard line. The Cougars takes it home to make the score 42-6. This was dominance if I had ever seen it. Elyria continued to struggle, not really being able to gain much yardage or even a 1st down. It got to a point where both teams were just evidently coasting. The Cougars run it into the endzone for a 33 yard TD at the very end of the 3rd and converting on the extra point making the score 49-6. Lake Catholic showing once again, why they are 7-0 and at the top of the food chain.

4th Quarter

One more quarter was left and the fans were still having as much fun as if the game had just started. This is one of the best things about High School football. The fans make the atmosphere lively.  The Panthers open up the quarter with their longest gain of the game with 18 yards. They take it all the way up the field to their own 16 and fumble for a loss with 4:28 left in the clock. The game was all but over as the Cougars gain control of ball once again and run down the game clock. the final score of the game was 49-6 in an assertive win in one of the biggest games of the year. Lake Catholic improve to 8-0 and Elyria fall to 1-7.