PAINESVILLE, Ohio — The Lake Erie football team hosted the Walsh University Cavaliers today for another Great Midwest matchup. With a fight for the annual Pride and Passion trophy on the line, it was a classic, hard-fought game but the Storm would come up just short, 20-13.
Game Recap
Walsh received the ball to begin the game and consumed a large portion of the first quarter, putting together a 13-play, 75 yard drive that took nearly seven minutes. They capped off the drive with a touchdown and took a 7-0 lead.
During the Cavaliers first offensive drive of the second quarter which began on the LEC 12, the Lake Erie defense came up big time on 4th & 1 at the LEC 3 and stuffed Walsh for a -1 yard run.
After a quick offensive series, the Storm had a mishap on the punt and Walsh took over at the LEC 10. Two plays later, Kemari Ward punched the ball free from Dante Walker and Christian Idoma pounced on it, recovering the ball for the Storm.
Lake Erie marched down the field in 12 plays and 79 yards and got on the board with a 27-yard field goal by Enrique Olmos.
The Lake Erie offense took that offensive momentum into the second half and on their first offensive series, drove down the field with a 39-yard highlight play from Tyler Maxwell, and capped off the drive with another 27-yard field goal by Olmos.
The Cavaliers would then extend the lead to 14-6 and 20-6 on back-to-back scoring drives but the Storm would not let that get them down.
With 5:53 left, the Storm executed a quick 2:16 drive which was capped off by a 10-yard touchdown by Keyshawn Johnson to trim the Walsh lead down to 20-13.
The Storm defense make fairly quick work of the Cavaliers offensive drive and began their own offensive drive with 1:30 remaining.
Quarterback Brady Clark executed two quick passes to Rico Small and Nick Mosley, the later of which would end out of bounds and stop the clock. After an incomplete pass, Clark found Bryce Dickson for 17 yards which would also end out of bounds and stop the clock.
A holding call on the offense would send the Storm back 10 yards but two plays later, Clark found Keyshawn Johnson for a 25-yard gain. After stopping the clock again, Clark connected with Maxwell for a four-yard gain to get them to the Walsh 34. Unfortunately, Clark's last pass was knocked down and time would expire with a close loss at home.
Clark went 23-of-35 for 262 yards while Maxwell hauled in three receptions for 80 yards.
On defense, Quinterrius Jemison had himself a day, leading the team with seven tackles, four tackles for loss, and two sacks.
Looking Ahead
The Storm will be back on the road for back-to-back contests beginning with a matchup against Hillsdale on Saturday, October 25th at 2:30 p.m. before traveling to Columbus to face the Ohio Dominican Panthers at 12 p.m.
