Dussel, Raiders rout Flashes 36-7

KANSAS – Changing a flat tire in the morning and catching touchdown passes at night.That's the kind of day Lakota senior Chase Dussel had Friday and he's quite alright with that.Dussel hauled in a pair of third-down touchdown catches from Jalen Wagner and was a part of the defense that limited Willard's high-powered offense in a 36-7 Sandusky Bay Conference River Division win for the Raiders.Dussel tallied just nine catches for 151 yards and one touchdown through five games for Lakota (3-3 overall, 1-2 SBC River). Against Willard, he finished with five catches for 117 yards and the two scores."We have athletes all over," Dussel said. "I don't think anyone's stats are really sticking out too much. Everyone is getting the ball, so it is spread out evenly."The Raiders set the tone early with their defense. Isaac Robinson was intercepted on the first drive for Willard (4-2, 2-1). CJ Biddle returned it 50 yards to give the Raiders an immediate chance.After two runs gained a total of one yard, it was a third-down 30-yard TD pass from Wagner to Dussel when Lakota struck. The extra point by Brandon Leal was good and the Raiders led, 7-0, with 8:45 left in the first quarter."We started the game a heck of a lot better than we did the last two weeks," Lakota coach Mike Lento said. "That was the goal. We won the toss and deferred. We took the ball the last couple weeks and didn't get in a rhythm."We wanted to put it on our defense and they came out and did a great job."The second drives for each team nearly mirrored the first ones. Willard was able to pick up four first downs and really get the offense moving, but once inside the red zone, two penalties pushed the Crimson Flashes back. Then, Biddle intercepted Robinson again near the goal line.Lakota followed with an impressive 98-yard drive. Again on third down, Wagner hit Biddle for a 57-yard pickup. The Raiders added two more first downs to get in the red zone. A holding penalty nearly hurt Lakota, but Dussel caught a 19-yard TD pass from Wagner to push the Raiders up 14-0."Our guys stepped up," Lento said. "They were in a coverage that we felt like we could take advantage of. Our line did a heck of a job creating protection. Jalen stood in there and threw some good balls."Six first-quarter penalties also hurt the Flashes in addition to the turnovers. Willard committed 11 penalties for 105 yards on the night."We had moments when we had big plays and had penalties," Willard coach Bill Speller said. "We had guys doing uncharacteristic things and we're going to have to step up and play a lot better because we have some tough games coming."Willard had by far its best drive of the night to respond. Isaac Robinson got his passing game to Cam Robinson going. The two connected for four passes on the drive including the nine-yard score. Luis Antonio's extra point brought the Flashes within 14-7.But, Lakota had the answer. After a short run on first down, Wagner connected with Avery Shilling on a 52-yard strike. The extra point was blocked, but the Raiders were up 20-6.Willard moved the ball on its next drive, but three incomplete passes and a short rush forced a turnover on downs.Lakota used all but three seconds of the final 5:51 of the half, slowly chugging clock to keep the Crimson Flashes off the field. The Raiders got inside the Willard 10, but sputtered a bit offensively. Leal added a 24-yard field goal to expand the Lakota lead to 23-7 at halftime."We made some mistakes defensively," Speller said. "Things that guys weren't supposed to do left people wide open. That's on us. I guess we didn't have them prepared for that. We played kind of scared. We knew what Lakota was going to do. We had a call for everything they were going to do."Willard got the stop it needed to start the second half. It turned the Raiders over on downs, but couldn't cash in.Despite a drive that tallied over six minutes and watched the Flashes move the ball from their own 16 to the Lakota 27, Willard turned the ball back over on downs."We wanted to keep things in front of us," said Lento of defending Willard's passing game. "We liked our coverage we could put in there. We wanted to make them stretch the field. We knew they liked to throw it deep, but we felt like we had them bracketed. Our coverage was great."The Raiders cashed in as Micah Williams went to work. He had runs of 29 and 12 yards and on the first play of the fourth quarter, he exploded for an 18-yard touchdown run.Lakota added a third interception of Robinson on the next drive. The Raiders kept the blows coming as Williams picked up 26 yards before Biddle scored on a 20-yard run to make it 36-7 with 9:41 to go.Williams finished with a career-high 186 yards on 22 carries. He tallied 13 carries for 137 yards in the second half - critical yards and attempts as Lakota pounded the ball and picked up first downs to keep Willard's offense off the field."I felt like I ran pretty well tonight," Williams said. "I couldn't thank my line enough for getting all the blocks. I can't appreciate my coaches and everyone that supported Lakota football tonight."Not bad for someone that had 40 rushes for 222 yards this season entering the game and amassed a whopping nine yards last week against Hopewell-Loudon."We challenged Micah," Lento said. "He was banged up this week, but we challenged him. We told him if he wanted the ball, he had to run like he wanted the ball."It is a season-low in points for Willard. The Flashes' previous low this season was 20 points in a loss to Vermilion. It is just the second time in 16 games since the beginning of the 2022 season that Willard has been kept below double digits."We knew what was coming," Dussel said. "They were going to throw it every time just about. Our scout team gave us a good look all week at practice. We knew what to expect."Isaac Robinson completed 22-of-38 passes for 189 yards and three interceptions. He entered the game with two interceptions across 148 passes so far this season.Cam Robinson registered 14 receptions for 140 yards for Willard.Wagner was 9-of-11 for 230 yards including 8-of-10 for 215 yards in the first half."We have to continue to work on ourselves," Lento said. "We have freshmen out there playing. We have to keep coaching them up. We had a lot of mistakes the last couple weeks. We spent this week getting good at what we knew we were good at."