Chieftains' D smothers Raiders in 30-0 rout

BASCOM – Hopewell-Loudon started fast and controlled the line of scrimmage Friday night as the No. 3 Chieftains blanked Lakota 30-0 in SBC River play.The Chieftains' defense lived in Lakota's backfield, causing havoc all game. Lakota rushed the ball 17 times for negative 13 yards, which contributed to just 49 total yards of offense Friday night – certainly a dominant performance from the unbeaten Chieftains (5-0, 2-0 SBC River)."We dominated on both sides of the line of scrimmage, which is what we expected to do, but I'm proud of them. We came out and took care of business," H-L coach Brian Colatruglio said. "We started fast and some weeks you just have a talent advantage, but I don't think we took that for granted and other than a turnover on our second drive, which was a little irritating, we controlled the ball and line of scrimmage and did a good job on both sides."Our D-line … it really allows us to play three down (linemen) and we can do a lot of stuff in coverage since we can control the line of scrimmage with just three down-linemen and they did a great job tonight, including Will Nutter, Aiden Ewald … those guys were in the backfield and causing a lot of trouble. We had some young guys in the secondary that had to step up tonight and I thought they did a really good job."After trailing 14-0 at halftime a week ago to Gibsonburg, the Chieftains weren't going to let that happen again as they came out fast on offense, scoring on the third play of the game. Kellen Frankart ran in a 10-yard TD and the Braylon Martinez two-point conversion made it 8-0 early. Frankart tacked on another rushing score in the opening quarter – this time from 29 yards out – giving the Chieftains a 15-0 lead after a Wade Kreais extra point.On the second play of the second quarter, Martinez took a handoff 15 yards to the end zone to make it 22-0 and then Jacoby Ellis found an open Chase Rogier for an 8-yard TD strike to get it to 30-0 after a Jaysin Cramer two-point conversion run. That's all H-L needed.Lakota's best drive of the night came late in the first half as quarterback Nick Elchert hit Grant Bomer for a 40-yard gain down to H-L's 19. But after two negative plays and then a delay of game penalty, Lakota first-year coach Ryan Lozier got flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct and then he was ejected right after in the second quarter."Officiating is a tough job anyway. It was a delay of game and Ryan I think thought the clock was at three (seconds) and the ref threw his flag. He didn't agree with the call at the time," assistant coach David Lozier, Ryan's dad, said. "We were in Hopewell territory after a nice play, but he's a young coach and he was fighting for his guys. It kind of escalated and he threw a personal foul and then he must've said something he didn't like and that was it. I've been to games where I've seen worse, but I'm not gonna fault the officials. Ryan is a young coach and this is a learning experience. We'll grow and learn from it."The whole second half was played with a running clock as a lot of second-strong players entered for the Chieftains.Halfway through the regular season, H-L sits atop the SBC River with a clear path to the title with Calvert's loss Friday night."We continue to grow. I really like where we're at as a team," Colatruglio said. "We've won in different ways: we've won throwing the ball, we've won with defense and special teams and we've won pounding the ball. I think we've adapted to the teams we've been playing and that's a good sign. "We just have to keep our head down, keep working and get better. Week to week we'll do what we have to do to improve."