Rangers, Flyers play in Lemoyne Road rivalry

Press Sports Editor
sports@presspublications.com

Jared Rettig. Nick Whitmore. Branden Short. Nick Russell.
The Northwood-Lake rivalry — better known as the Lemoyne Road Rivalry — has featured some great players and great teams, and that could be the case this season when the two teams meet on Friday.
The Rangers and Flyers have split their last four meetings, with Lake winning last year, 33-0. The Flyers ran for 252 yards in the win, highlighted by the performances of RB Joah Herman (13 carries, 100 yards), RB Izyck Whalen (14 carries, 95 yards, 3 TD) and QB Carter Behlmer (9-of-16, 117 yards).
The two teams are old Suburban Lakes League foes. From 1996-2000, Lake and Northwood were in the conference before the Rangers left for the Toledo Area Athletic Conference.
Since then, they’ve played consistently in week two in nearly every season.
The Flyers are currently in the Northern Buckeye Conference and Northwood is in the TAAC, but will be joining the Sandusky Bay Conference River Division next year.
Northwood coach Ken James, now in his 38th year at the helm, talked about the rivalry.
“When I first got here, it was our first year in the SLL. Lake was in the Northern Lakes League. They had played a couple times before I got here,” he said. “I think the first year we came back and played them was in the year they came back to the SLL in ‘96. We’ve played pretty consistently since then.”
The schools are connected via Lemoyne Road with Lake High School being 3.5 miles to the south of Northwood High School.
“It’s two good communities – communities where the families and the schools follow the sports teams,” said James. “The communities are right next to each other. There are people who might’ve gone to Northwood, but they moved to the country, and their kids went to Lake, and vice versa.
“We play them in every sport – basketball, baseball, wrestling. The communities know each other,” he said.
Lake coach Lane Bishop is getting a taste of the rivalry.
“Before coming to Lake, I didn’t really realize how close the schools were to each other and how much overlap there was with the communities,” he said. “Getting to know and understand the rivalry a little bit more, there is certainly no lack of competitiveness between the schools.”
Bishop talked about the challenges that come with defending the Rangers’ patented wishbone/flexbone offense.
“I think that the schematics of their offense make it a challenge to prepare for,” he said. “They use a unique scheme that you don’t see week to week, and is not easy to prepare for. We are going to have to be disciplined with our roles and reads.”
The teams have struggled a bit as of late. Lake hasn’t made the playoffs since 2018, and the year before that, Northwood went 10-0, but didn’t qualify for the postseason because it didn’t accumulate enough computer points to get into the top eight.
Both teams are in Division V, Region 18, so computer points are at a premium, even though 16 teams from each region make it to the playoffs.
“It would help out a ton,” said Bishop. “Northwood being a Division V team would give us a lot of level-one points, and I expect Northwood to win several games this year so that could get us a lot of level-two points. It could have a major impact on where we ended up being seeded.”
James has faced some good Lake coaches in the past, like Mark Emans, Jim Kubuske and Phil Demars.
Now, Bishop, who brings a winning pedigree from his time as the offensive coordinator for four years at Elmwood, is molding the program in his image.
“He’s a good, young coach. He’s got good numbers, I think he’s done a good job. I think if stays there, he’ll have success,” said James. “The NBC is tough, especially with the addition of Oak Harbor and Maumee. I think he’s done a really good job.”
Bishop, a 2015 graduate of North Baltimore, talked about the rivalries he coached and played in. He’s coached at his alma mater, Elmwood and Van Buren.
“When I was at North Baltimore, Elmwood and Van Buren were our rivals. It was a game (where) you knew everyone would be ready to go and it would be a physical slugfest,” he said. “When I coached at Elmwood, our rival was Eastwood, and that was unlike any rivalry I’ve been a part of. The disdain for the opposing team was unmatched, but it was always clean competition, which we really appreciated. When both teams were good at the same time, it made the game and atmosphere so electric.”
Bishop talked about James’ lengthy career as Northwood’s coach.
“For him to do what he has done for as long as he has done it, it’s quite an accomplishment. I think I read or heard that last year was their first losing season in 20 some years,” said Bishop. “So I think his accolades and wins speak for themselves. I personally don’t know him very well, but I have heard people speak about all of the things he has done for the betterment of the kids at Northwood and I have a lot of respect for that.”