Daquanne Parks finds a familiar place, scoring the first of his three TD’s as London puts up 42 to shut out the Falcons. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Brian Bayless)
The class of the Central Buckeye Conference for quite some time, unbeaten London sent a strong message it won’t surrender that status lightly with a running-clock cakewalk over previously-undefeated Graham.
London, OH – The records promised more than the proceedings delivered, which explains why Graham coach Rich Clark didn’t seem too disconsolate nor London coach Kyle Cutler too overjoyed with the outcome Friday night in Madison County.
“They’re kind of the standard in this league,” Clark said of Red Raiders, whose 42-0 victory was their 28th straight regular-season win. “They’re what we’re trying to get to. We’re not quite there yet, but we’re getting there.”
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Unbeaten at 4-0 prior to kickoff, Graham had already exceeded its win total of last season and matched its collective victory total from Clark’s two previous seasons in charge.
The Falcons’ fast start traced to a dominant run game that produced over 1,500 yards through four weeks, but they found the sledding much tougher against a London defense that allowed only one brief foray across midfield in the first half and one in the second.
“We played well,” Cutler said, “but we have a lot of things to work on. We executed on some critical downs when we needed to, but we also made some big mistakes that we have to clean up.”
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One of those errors, a certain touchdown pass that senior Kyler Russell dropped with no defender within a zip code, led to a turnover on downs at the Graham 30 on London’s first possession.
That kept the Red Raiders scoreless until Daquanne Parks 17-yard run with 1:22 left in the first quarter.
Two plays later, London’s one-score lead doubled when Russell got the chance to play receiver again – only this time defensively. Graham quarterback Gage Stull surprisingly threw directly to Russell in the left flat, leaving him nothing but 30 yards of open field for the interception return.
Ladainan McNeal celebrates with Kyler Russell after a Red Raider score.
“I looked that first one in, right into my hands, but I think I was ready to score the touchdown before the ball got there,” Russell said. “I got a little too excited because I knew it was wide open. I’m glad I got that second one dialed in.”
Russell’s 29-yard punt return to the Graham 46 put his team in position to score again midway through the second quarter. He then found freedom around left end for what would have been a 35-yard score, but a holding penalty negated that.
Not to worry, though, because quarterback Blake Reay found LaDainan McNeal on a 24-yard wheel route that set up Parks’ 3-yard touchdown five minutes before the half.
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The Falcons tried to exhaust that remaining time, but left London 1:55, which is way more than Parks needed.
Daquanne Parks gets an assist from his quarterback Blake Reay for the last five yards of this 55-yard TD run.
He sped around right end on third-and-five, outran most of the defense and then broke through a tackle attempt at the 5-yard line to complete the 55-yard touchdown.
“We just did a quick pitch there and I followed my blockers,” Parks said. “We had them outnumbered on the end and that’s what allowed us to get the job done. I scored, but I feel like it’s not just me that scores, it’s the whole team that scores.”
Russell did most of the heavy lifting after London took the second-half kickoff and marched 82 yards for a 35-0 lead. He gained 67 yards on the drive, most on jet sweeps that caught the Falcons by surprise.
“We hadn’t seen much of that on tape,” Clark said. “They surprised us with a little bit of a different formation and it took us awhile to adjust to that and to adjust to their speed.
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Things got a little chippy in the second half, as JJ Henry takes down Kyler Russell after Russell had crossed the goal line for his second score of the night.
“They’re a very fast, physical team and we hadn’t seen the likes of a team that fast and physical yet this year.”
Senior Danny Hoke shouldered most of Graham’s offensive load, bruising between the tackles for 83 yards on 20 carries.
Parks’ 55-yard run before the break put him over 100 for the night. He finished with 15 attempts for 126 yards and three TDs entering a Week Six trip to Urbana, which Graham gashed for 67 points a week ago.
Bryston Toronto’s 8-yard run with 1:34 to play put London over the 40-point mark for the fourth straight week after an opening 14-11 win at Division I New Albany.
The Red Raiders (5-0) are right on the heels of top-ranked Tippecanoe (5-0), which also posted a 42-0 victory Friday night at Vandalia Butler, in Division III, Region 12.
Last season, London reached the state semifinals before a bad second quarter proved fatal in a 56-21 loss to eventual D-III state champion Watterson.
Donovan Corwin tries the evade the grip of London’s Bryston Toronto.
The Red Raiders have won the last four Central Buckeye Conference Kenton Trail division titles and have designs on a fifth with rival Jonathan Alder (5-0) coming to London on Oct. 10.
“We played for Carson Lewis, one of our players who was injured last week and just got out of the hospital,” Cutler said as his Red Raiders sprinted to greet their teammate near an EMS vehicle aside the end zone. “He was heavy on our hearts all week, so we wanted to play well.”
But 42-0 and a running clock for half the third and all of the fourth quarter wasn’t well enough?
“We just have to be London,” Cutler said. “We have a high standard and we work toward that every week. That’s what it will take for us to be satisfied.”
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