High school football: Lakota East and West look to continue streaks, stay atop GMC standings

Credit: Nick Graham

Credit: Nick Graham

The Lakota East High School football team continued its win streak last week in memorable fashion and now remains on track for a potential Greater Miami Conference championship showdown two weeks from now.

For the first time since 1999, the Thunderhawks beat Colerain, eking out a 7-6 victory on the road Oct. 1 thanks to a blocked extra point that helped Charlie Kenrich’s third-quarter touchdown and Trevor Hoffmann’s PAT hold up for the win.

The Hawks (6-1, 5-0 GMC) head to Oak Hills (0-7) on Friday looking to remain unbeaten in conference play, as they appear on a crash course to play Lakota West (6-1, 5-0 GMC) for the title in Week 10. West also is on a six-game win streak and seeking to defend its 2020 championship.

East, which has only won one GMC title when it shared with Colerain in 2004-05, opened the season with a 42-27 loss to Moeller and has rattled off six straight since then. The Hawks host Fairfield (2-4, 2-3 GMC) next week before traveling to West for the regular-season finale on Oct. 22.

The Hawks’ triple-option offense has been led by quarterback T.J. Kathman, who has 712 passing yards, 529 rushing yards and 17 total touchdowns. Eric Davis adds 526 yards rushing and eight touchdowns, while Kenrich has 388 yards rushing and four touchdowns to go along with 208 yards receiving and one touchdown catch.

The defense ranks third in the GMC with just 271.1 yards and 18.6 points allowed per game. Nathan Rosario registers a team-leading 45 tackles, Ethan Evans has two forced fumbles and two interceptions and Caleb Vanhosser has the team’s lone defensive touchdown on a fumble recovery.

Meanwhile, West has been steamrolling through its competition since dropping a 31-14 loss to defending state champion St. Xavier in the opener.

Heading into Friday’s home game against Middletown (0-7), the Firebirds have outscored their last six opponents 231-54, averaging 38.5 points per game on offense with quarterback Mitch Bolden leading the GMC with 1,122 yards passing and 11 touchdowns with four interceptions. Bolden adds 386 yards on the ground and six rushing touchdowns, while Cameron Goode has 543 yards rushing and nine touchdowns.

Aden Miller leads the defense with 51 tackles, while Joshua Fussell has three interceptions.

SWOC action heating up

Ross (5-1), Edgewood (4-2) and Harrison (3-3) all remain 2-0 in Southwest Ohio Conference play, but at least one of those teams will have a blip on their conference record after Friday.

The Rams play host to Harrison, while Edgewood is looking to extend a four-game winning streak while hosting Talawanda (1-5, 0-2 SWOC). Edgewood and Ross play next week in Trenton before the Cougars finish up at Harrison.

Ross won its first SWOC title last year, Harrison won it in 2019 and Edgewood had titles three straight seasons before that in 2016, 2017 and 2018, the last one shared with Harrison.

Also on a roll…

Monroe and Badin keep piling up wins as well and will be looking to keep their momentum going into Week 8 games.

The Hornets (6-1) earned a big 28-7 win over Franklin last week to improve to 3-0 in the Southwestern Buckeye League East with a fifth straight victory overall. They travel to Waynesville (4-3, 1-3 SWBL) on Friday as the only team in the SWBL without a league loss.

Badin (7-0, 2-0 GCLC) is coming off a 31-0 win over Alter last week and remains one of two undefeated teams in the Greater Catholic League Co-Ed division, setting up a potential title game against McNicholas (7-0, 2-0 GCLC) on Oct. 22.

The Rams, who have shut out three opponents this season, travel to play Chaminadeulienne on Friday.

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