Fostoria faces another top-level team in Eastwood

Eastwood at Fostoria Records: Eastwood 5-1, 3-0; Fostoria 1-5, 0-3. Last year: Eastwood won 63-7. Outlook: Last week's loss to unbeaten Oak Harbor, ranked fifth in Division V, showed the Redmen where improvements need to occur. The challenge comes in doing that in time for this Friday's game with Eastwood. "We've got to get back to the drawing board. We've got to learn from our mistakes and go to practice and clean some things up, and keep trying to coach these young men to get better in all phases of the game," FHS coach Derek Kidwell said. "The problem Friday was that we were getting handled on both sides of the lines," he said. "We couldn't run the ball, we couldn't stop the run, especially in the second half of the game. So we've just got to somehow come out and play tougher and more physical (against Eastwood)." That's been difficult for all of Eastwood's foes this year. The Eagles' lone loss came in a 14-7 setback in Week 3 against Wauseon, the only time Eastwood was held to one touchdown so far this year. Kidwell said the challenge on defense comes in trying to halt the Spread offense the Eagles installed this year. Quarterback Kadyn Donnell has thrown for 1,034 yards and 12 touchdowns while running for 414 yards and eight more scores. Running back Caiden Maize has added 734 yards and nine more TDs on the ground. Andrew Lewis, with 30 catches for 734 yards and nine TDs, heads up a formidable receiving corps. Kaiden Sanchez (15-221, 3 TDs), Dayquan Oliver (14-205, 3 TDs, Brock Messinger (8-144, 1 TD) add depth. "They spread you from sideline to sideline, so it's challenging. But when it comes down to it, we've got to stop, No. 1, their quarterback, and No. 2, their running back. That's what gets them going on offense, so if we can take the quarterback and running back out of the game or make it difficult for them, (it will help)," Kidwell said. "We like our matchups in the secondary. We like our zone schemes against their passing concepts, but we've got to control the run game," he said. "We've got to win the line of scrimmage and we've got to get pressure on the quarterback when it's passing downs." Hopewell-Loudon at Willard Records: Hopewell-Loudon 6-0, 3-0; Willard 4-2, 2-1. Last year: Did not play. Outlook: Willard found itself bogged down offensively in last week's runaway loss to Lakota, but Hopewell-Loudon coach Brian Colatruglio said that's no reason to look past the Crimson Flashes this week. "Offensively, they're a really good football team. Last week was just a very weird game," he said. "They had some uncharacteristic turnovers and a bunch of penalties, especially in the Red Zone. "They've done a good job of scoring points all year," Colatruglio said. Last week's loss was the first time all year that Willard scored fewer than 20 points. The key to points for the Crimson Flashes has been the passing game. Isaac Robinson has thrown for 1,749 yards and 23 touchdowns, tops in the SBC River Division in both categories. His first option in the passing game is Cam Robinson, who leads the conference with 59 catches, 892 receiving yards and 10 TD receptions. Paxton Flores (25-306, 4 TDs), Harry Meisner (27-360, 5 TDs) and Jackson Beamer (10-173, 2 TDs) add plenty of depth at receiver. "They throw the ball 75% of the time; a lot of empty formations and they put a lot of pressure on the perimeter of your defense," Colatruglio said. "It's a different matchup than anything we've had this year and we have to be able to adjust and defend their quick passing game. "They're different. They're Spread. A lot of quick game, a lot of screens," he said. "It's a different type of pass game. Their quarterback, he's pretty accurate and they have several good receivers." The Chieftains have done their fair share of passing, too. Evan Kreais has thrown for 1,376 yards and 16 scores. And while no H-L player comes close to Cam Robinson's stats, the Chieftains do spread the ball around. Blake Berrier leads the H-L receivers with 40 catches for 573 yards and six TDs. Braylon Martinez (17-249, 4 TDs) and Jack Colatruglio (18-213) are next in line when it comes to catching passes, with Adam Kreais (9-121, 3 TDs), Matt Wyman (9-132, 2 TDs) and Wyatt Crow (7-66, 1 TD) also figuring in. Hopewell-Loudon does hold an advantage in the ground game, with Martinez topping the conference with 631 yards and 13 touchdowns. Kellen Frankart (20-93, 1 TD) has also figured in a little in the ground attack. While H-L can throw it well, coach Colatruglio said the Chieftains will probably start attacking Willard with the ground game since the Crimson Streaks allow nearly 241 rushing yards per game. "It's no secret they've struggled to stop the run. That's been kind of their Achilles' heel. They've given up a bunch of rushing yards and a bunch of points throughout the year," he said. "We're going to want to run the ball, control the clock a little bit and finish drives, for sure," he said. Gibsonburg at Lakota Records: Gibsonburg 2-4 overall, 1-2 Sandusky Bay Conference River Division; Lakota 3-3, 1-2. Last year: Gibsonburg, 44-7. Outlook: Lakota got a big boost to its season when it topped Willard last week in convincing fashion. The Raiders want to turn it into consecutive wins as it faces backyard rival Gibsonburg. It'll be quite a shift for Lakota's defense as Willard is a team that would rather pass the ball 50 times a game while Gibsonburg is a squad that would like to run the ball 50 times a night. "We are seeing a completely different offense than we did last week," Lakota coach Mike Lento said. "Two very different beasts. We need to stay disciplined against Gibsonburg and keep our eyes out of the backfield and play assignment football." With Grant Smith injured, the Golden Bears have leaned on their other quadrant of backs. In a 30-10 win over Woodmore, Antonio Salazar ran 17 times for 168 yards and a touchdown while Reece Walby had 10 carries for 114 yards and three scores. Spencer Waugaman added nine carries for 29 yards and Aiden Morant tallied seven rushes for 51 yards. Waugaman and Morant ran for touchdowns against Calvert, the night Smith was injured. "We believe the players proved to themselves to be able to get it done," said Lento of the 36-7 win over Willard. "We worked all week on truly executing their job and not to do too much and we feel that it paid off. We really focused on ourselves and the fundamentals of the game." Micah Williams tallied 22 carries for 186 yards and a touchdown against Willard while Jalen Wagner completed 9-of-11 passes for 230 yards and three TDs. Chase Dussel had two of those touchdown catches among his five receptions for 117 yards. For the season, Wagner is up to 57-of-97 passing for 842 yards and eight touchdowns while Williams has run 62 times for 408 yards. Avery Shilling leads the receivers with 22 catches for 355 yards with Dussel (14-228) not far behind. "We had some holding penalties that we need to clean up, especially in big situations," Lento said. "We need to continue to take what the defense gives us. We work on it every week in practice for a 15-20 minute period. We need to get better at tackling. We are missing some open field tackles that hurt us with down and distance and field position. We need to duplicate on offense what we did last week. We feel we are moving in the right direction and we want to be able to continue that this week."