Lehman quarterback Turner Lachey avoided Northridge’s consistent pass rush for most of the game to find open receivers. (Press Pros Feature Photos By Julie McMaken Wright)
The Cavaliers score the game’s final 28 points, Turner Lachey and his top two receivers, Evan O’Leary and CJ Olding, have another big statistical night, and the defense gets stingy after the first quarter.
Sidney, OH – Turner Lachey couldn’t tolerate being on the sideline.
Veteran columnist Jeff Gilbert writes Ohio State football and basketball and OHSAA sports for Press Pros Magazine.com.
His Lehman Catholic team trailed Northridge. Penalties frustrated him. He was intercepted in the end zone. So, he went to head coach Dwane Rowley and asked to play defense.
“Our team was losing, and I can’t be on the sidelines,” Lachey said. “It’s just the competitiveness in me. I had to get out there.”
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Lachey needed to chase and tackle the guys who had been chasing and tackling him to get his mind right. Rowley listened to and trusted his star quarterback, and good stuff happened. Lots of it.
The rhythm that defines the Cavaliers’ high-scoring offense found a consistent beat. The defense got serious. They played with vengeance from the second quarter on. And the 4-0 Cavaliers defeated Northridge 34-16 as the bad juju of another shaky start dissipated into the cool night air.
Lehman Catholic’s Evan O’Leary fights for the goal line on a 47-yard touchdown less than two minutes into the game.
“Just had to get moving,” Rowley said. “Warmups we were flat. Started the game we were flat. And then we just started getting in the groove, and then everything just caught fire.”
The Cavaliers led 6-0 when Lachey threw a 47-yard touchdown pass to Evan O’Leary with 10:11 left in the first quarter. But for most of the rest of the half, touchdowns didn’t come as easy and as early as in the Cavaliers’ first three wins, and Northridge (1-3) gets a lot of the credit. The Polar Bears always have the most speed in Three Rivers Conference. Their experienced defensive line, led by 255-pound senior tackle Cameron Moss, last year’s co-lineman of the year in the conference, made Lachey make a lot of plays on the move.
“We’ve been coming out flat-footed a little bit,” Lachey said. “We got to start off hot. I don’t know why it is, but we got to fix it somehow.”
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After what felt like a good start with the 6-0 lead, Northridge’s Tre’von Rowe owned the rest of the first quarter. He caught Lehman flat-footed when he returned the kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown right after Lehman’s first score. Next, he intercepted Lachey in the end zone. Then he made a quick cutback on a sweep to the left for a 57-yard touchdown run. The Polar Bears led 16-6 with 2:58 left in the first quarter.
Jace Olding and his Lehman linemates had their hands full at times with Northridge’s defensive line.
“As captains we have to get our guys ready,” O’Leary said. “The coaches, they give us everything, but they can’t play for us. The players got to play. And we’re going to take responsibility for that and get everyone ready for the rest of the year.”
In the final five minutes of the first half, Lachey and his two best receivers finally lit the Lehman offensive fire and fanned the flames into another big-numbers passing night. He threw touchdown passes of 58 and 62 yards to CJ Olding, the first a short throw and broken tackle, the second a deep ball that traveled about 50 yards through the air.
Lachey completed 25 of 35 passes for 392 yards and four touchdowns. O’Leary caught 12 passes for 144 yards and a touchdown. Olding caught seven passes for 164 yards and three touchdowns.
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Lachey throws lots of short passes to the perimeter, screens and 10 yards over the middle. It’s methodical like a running game that picks up four or five yards at a time.
“Lull them to sleep,” Lachey said. “If they want to come play tight, then we’ll get them deep. If they’re even, they’re open.”
Northridge’s Tre’von Rowe is off and running on one of his two first-quarter touchdowns.
The deep ball to Olding at the end of the half followed lots of short passes. Olding had Rowe beaten by a step when Lachey released it high and deep to hit him in stride.
“We hit him on some short passes, and then CJ came up to me and said, ‘Let’s go deep.’” Lachey said. “So I signaled to my coach, and it worked.”
Rowley said the team is blessed to have two big-play receivers who make tough catches and all the routine ones. O’Leary has 46 catches for 747 yards and nine touchdowns. Olding has 18 for 549 yards and nine touchdowns. He’s averaging 30.5 yards per catch.
“They try to double team one of them, the other one’s going to be open,” Lachey said. “It’s hard to guard two all-state receivers.”
CJ Olding (1) got to celebrate three touchdown receptions from Turner Lachey.
Lachey is headed for all-state himself. He’s completed 75 of 97 passes for 1,529 yards and 20 touchdowns. He’s on pace to surpass 3,000 yards in the regular season, maybe 3,500.
“We trust him a lot,” O’Leary said. “I advocate that he’s one of the best quarterbacks in Ohio right now.”
While the passing game is as good as it gets in Division VII, improving the Cavaliers’ running game is a point of emphasis. Rowley said it’s steadily improving with Grant Sollman getting most of the carries and Lachey always a threat to scramble for first downs. But he knows his team must throw the ball to score points.
“We’re not a smash-mouth football team up front or with our skill positions,” Rowley said. “We want to utilize our players to the best of their advantage. Our spread offense really fits their tools.”
Lehman’s defense did a lot of bending but didn’t break after the first quarter, allowing 274 rushing yards. Rowe finished with 127 yards on 17 carries and quarterback Sulaiman Muhammed rushed for 92 yards on 17 carries.
Grant Sollmann catches a pass from Turner Lachey.
“We were really concerned about just keeping the quarterback in the pocket, not letting him extend plays and get outside and turn it into a track meet,” Rowley said. “They’re loaded with athletes and speed, so that was one of our concerns, just being able to harness their speed and make them play inside the tackle box.”
The Cavaliers had a measure of extra motivation. Last year the two teams met in Week 10 and both were unbeaten in conference play. Northridge won 46-14 to win the Three Rivers Conference championship.
There wasn’t a Cavalier in Sidney Memorial Stadium who didn’t remember that feeling.
“Being the first conference game of the year, we want to get off on the right foot, so it starts with Northridge,” Rowley said. “And obviously they beat us for the title last year, and we’re coming out with a little bit of chip on their shoulder, a little bit of vengeance.”
Said Lachey: “We had to owe it to them because they took the league title from us and then took our momentum going into the playoffs. So it was our time.”
Lehman’s Evan O’Leary comes down with a difficult catch at the 2-yard line to set up the Cavaliers final touchdown late in the game.
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