Eagles, Flyers look to gain upper hand in NBC

Press Sports Editor
sports@presspublications.com

Following a challenging non-conference schedule, Lake and Eastwood will be looking to start Northern Buckeye Conference play off on the right foot.
Both teams find themselves at 2-0 following some impressive victories.
The Eagles beat Elmwood, 49-6, in week two and narrowly defeated Kenton, 38-35, in the opener.
In the win over the Wildcats, the Eagles held a 31-14 lead at halftime, but Kenton scored three straight touchdowns to go ahead, 35-31.
But Eastwood won it in dramatic fashion on a 12-yard touchdown pass from Drew Luidhart to Andre Lewis with nine seconds to play.
Luidhart was filling in for Kadyn Donnell, who broke the pinky finger on his throwing hand. He can start throwing in three weeks.
Eastwood coach Sam Cotterman talked about the victory.
“We did what we wanted to do – shut down their first go-to option and did a good job (defending) their screens. We moved the ball, Kadyn went down, had to move guys around, lost some depth and they came and ran the ball really well against us,” said Cotterman. “We had a couple of bad series offensively, and gave the ball back, and they were able to capitalize. I like to think about the positive — it's the first game of the year, it’s hot, we went 94 yards for the final drive and converted two fourth downs. We took a lot of positives. We learned a lot of lessons from this win.” Luidhart completed 17-of-27 passes for 295 yards, four touchdowns and one interception, Lewis caught nine passes for 150 yards and one score and Cam Schumaker had two receptions for 76 yards and a touchdown.
In the win over the Royals, Luidhart completed 8-of-9 passes for 140 yards and three touchdowns while Schumaker, DaQuan Oliver and Brock Messinger all caught touchdowns and Kevin Lewis rushed eight times for 90 yards and two scores.
As for the Flyers, they beat rival Northwood, 35-0, and took down Leipsic, 34-22, in week one.
In the win over the Vikings, Lake trailed, 22-14, at halftime before winning the second half, 20-0.
“We made a couple of adjustments at halftime,” said Lake coach Lane Bishop. “We made the decision to run the ball at them, and we were able to come out on top.”
It was running back by committee as Dylan Wright scored three touchdowns, Iyzck Whalen and Julian Rodriguez got into the mix while Carter Behlmer threw for over 250 yards and two scores and Xavier Scott caught two touchdowns.
Eastwood is just ahead of Lake in the Division V, Region 18 standings with 4.50 points, good for seventh. The Flyers are eighth with 4.40 points.
Cotterman, now in his second year coaching the Eagles, played against Eastwood as a player at Elmwood.
“I spent a lot of years at Perrysburg, so I kind of lost track of them, but I do know that Coach Bishop was at Elmwood for a couple years, and he did a really nice job with the offense,” said Cotterman. “He has a great offensive mind. I think he’s doing a great job over there. They’ve had some impressive wins so far.
“It’s nice to see they’ve had some success, and it’s a nice challenge for us because of the computer points. It’s nice to go up against an opponent that’s got some wins, and the strength of the league is continuing to grow. Lake and Maumee have started off with two convincing wins apiece. When you get your non-league schedule, the first league game is a big one. One of the big goals is to win the league.”
Bishop, also in his second season, has familiarity coaching against Eastwood because he previously worked as the offensive coordinator at Elmwood.
“I think they’re the standard of our league, for our area football. Their consistency, they’ve kind of set the bar for what you want your program to be right,” he said. “Their kids play the right way; they’re respectful, they play hard, they show sportsmanship. They do all of the fundamentals correctly. They are what we strive to get our program to be.”