WEST CHESTER TWP. — Two teams headed in opposite directions took the field Friday night in West Chester.
Predictably, Lakota West overwhelmed Hamilton 42-7, but both coaches admitted the best is yet to come for both programs.
West coach Tom Bolden mentioned cleaning things up as the Firebirds prepare for a big Greater Miami Conference game next week with Princeton, while HHS coach Arvie Crouch admitted he was ready to see his team fight the rest of the way.
“Our effort was good, but we didn’t always do the right things,” Bolden said. “We had some assignment miscues and things like that. We turned it over twice. Other than that, we are playing hard, we are flying around, we are physical, playing fast. I like where we are at. It’s just not good enough yet.”
While Bolden felt like he was nitpicking a bit in a big win, HHS could only look to the future after managing only one first down on the night.
“Offense was non-existent,” Crouch said. “We can’t continue to do that. We have to figure something out. I think it is execution more than anything else. We will look at the film and get better.”
The game was over quickly as West scored on its initial possession.
The Firebirds led 28-0 at halftime despite throwing two red zone interceptions and having two touchdowns called back.
Kenyon Norman ran for four scores in the first half while running for nearly 200 yards. The Northwestern commit, along with most of the West starters, took the second half off.
JT Munoz threw a touchdown pass to Karmelo Jordan to open the second-half scoring, while the third quarterback West played, Wyatt Schroeder, added two more scores during the running clock.
Lakota West is now 4-0, 3-0 in the league, while HHS fell to 1-3, 1-2 GMC.
West now begins gearing up for a huge GMC game at Princeton next Friday. The Vikings are also 4-0, 3-0 in league play after decimating Sycamore 56-7 Friday.
Bolden said his troops will be ready.
“It’s huge,” Bolden said of the matchup. “It will be all the high school football’s about. I am sure it will be one heckuva football game, I can guarantee you that.”
One thing West can count on is a stiff defense, which completely locked down Hamilton High, holding the Blue to 8 total yards in the first half and only one first down on the night.
Led by Judah Blair and Roman Combs, West flew around the ball all night, with Karson Jordan snagging a big interception.
“Yeah, they do what they do,” Bolden said. “They were a little embarrassed after last week. They had a great week of practice, locked it back in, made a few small adjustments and it showed tonight.”
While Bolden is gearing up for another big game, HHS will be back to the drawing board after suffering its third running-clock loss in the first four games.
Quarterback Trae Davidson was harassed all night and the running game was completely nonexistent.
The one bright spot for HHS was a kickoff return by Bentley Sturgeon in the fourth quarter to avoid the shutout.
Sturgeon gave a lot of credit to his coach Jimmy Gross on the return.
“Coach Gross told me, ‘We are being scared right now and if we don’t run hard and hit the holes like we are supposed to, we won’t be able to get big plays like that,’” Sturgeon said. “I listened to him, hit the hole and just took off.”
A sophomore, Sturgeon said the start has been tough, but his team is ready to turn the season around.
“We are going to go into practice and have a great week of preparation for Lakota East,” Sturgeon said. “We will try to get that ‘Dub’ and even if we don’t, we will learn from it and try to get the ‘Dub’ the next week.”
Despite giving up 294 yards of offense to West in the first half, Crouch said his defense actually played OK.
Hamilton had red zone interceptions by Aidan Turner and Jayden Scott.
“Defense actually got better tonight,” Crouch said. “They made some plays.”
Crouch said there is a lot of season left for Big Blue to turn things around.
“One thing about our program and our kids is they have a lot of character,” Crouch said. “The kids are still fighting and getting better every week. That is a credit to our kids and Hamilton. That is our goal. We are going to keep working hard and get better. I saw that in our defense this week.”
