Chieftains start hot, rout Roughriders 42-6

BASCOM – Hopewell-Loudon looked like a team coming off a bye week – well-rested, fast, explosive and eager to play playoff football.That spelled doom for Western Reserve. H-L scored a touchdown on its first four drives of the game as the Chieftains topped Western Reserve 42-6 in a Division VI quarterfinal Friday night."I said that all along is that we needed practice time with all our guys," H-L coach Brian Colatruglio said. "Again, some years I'm not sure I would like (a bye), but I think we really needed that week off and it came at a perfect time and I kind of expected this. I thought we'd come out and play a really good football game. We played fast, we were physical … in all phases of the game."I was happy with how our guys came out tonight because it's been a while since we played. They're a good football team and we kind of dominated them."After a quick three-and-out to begin the game for the WR offense, H-L (10-1) got to work behind the fresh legs of Kellen Frankart. While he returned to play some in Week 10 vs. Woodmore, he really hadn't played a lot of snaps since Week 3 before an injury. That showed.Frankart started the onslaught with a 5-yard touchdown run midway through the opening quarter as H-L led 6-0. After another three-and-out for WR (9-3), Jacoby Ellis rolled right and found a wide open Frankart for a 25-yard TD and with a Brody Brickman successful rush on the two-point conversion, H-L led 14-0 to end the first quarter.On H-L's next possession, Frankart capped a nine-play drive with a 6-yard rushing score and then Brickman got in on the TD action with a 1-yard plunge to make the score 28-0 at the half."Hopewell played really well tonight and I don't think we played as well as we have some weeks, but sometimes that's a credit to the other team being big and physical," Western Reserve coach Ty Stevenson said. "I'm proud of our guys, you know nine wins, which is just the fourth time in Western Reserve history that there's been nine wins in a season for the football team, so we're proud of those 11 seniors. "You don't like to lose like this, but typically in the playoffs, you do. It is what it is. It was a great win last week, we'll hang our hat on that."On H-L second possession of the second half, Brickman ran in a 31-yard TD to make it 35-0 to begin the running clock. It didn't last too long as WR scored on a 6-yard TD run from Landyn Wiegel, but Brickman wound the running clock again a minute later as he broke free for a 44-yard rushing score to put the game away.With the extra week of practice, combined with the evolution of Brickman as a Wildcat QB with Frankart being out, has bolstered H-L's offense with an embarrassment of riches of skill players."We have three guys who are really good with the ball in their hands and we had to try to figure out how to get all three of them involved," Colatruglio said. "Brody played great when Kellen was out, and again the bye week was trying to put together a plan where we have all three of them involved, and again, to have two guys that are kind of hammers back there and you have Brody, who kind of ducks in there with those big guys and then pops out … it's something I've never had with three guys that talented running the football. It's awesome. It's fun to try to draw things up too."With the win, the Chieftains will host Archbold (9-2) next week as the Blue Streaks handled Seneca East 44-12."I don't know much about them, I know they're good, they play a good schedule and obviously everyone at this level is really good," Colatruglio said. "We'll enjoy this one tonight because playoff wins are tough, and special, and it's all about having another week. We have 14 seniors and we want this to go as long as we can."