LC picks on 'Jackets

By RANDY CAVIN
Special to The Press
The offensive struggles continued Friday night for the youthful Greenfield Yellowjackets as they went up against a much more experienced and bigger Lake County football team.
Greenfield once again had trouble moving the ball until late in the fourth quarter when the ’Jackets finally scored their first touchdown of the season, that score coming with 11.5 seconds left in the game in a 40-7 loss to the Falcons Friday night at Greenfield.
Turnovers and a relentless defense from the Falcons kept the Yellowjackets from mounting any kind of offense through the first three quarters of play.
“I saw a lot of improvement. I thought in the first half we played with tremendous intensity,” Greenfield head coach Jason Rodehaver said. “We had a lot of turnovers. We had a good situation where we had the ball inside the 20 and fumbled on the second play.”
Both teams had trouble controlling the ball with Greenfield committing five turnovers and Lake County with three. The Falcons fumbled four times while recovering two of them.
The ’Jackets gained 51 total yards of offense for the game with 32 in the ground and 19 in the air. However, in the fourth quarter the ’Jackets gained 55 yards, but with some earlier losses on the ground it reduced their total number of yards gained. The Falcons put up 274 total yards with 170 on the ground and 104 in the air.
A big chunk of those yards in the air came in the third quarter when quarterback Nick Price hit Rafael Tyler for a 55-yard touchdown on a fly-pattern. Tyler had three catches for 73 yards and the one score.
Greenfield was led on the ground by Christian McAlister with six carries for 19 yards. He pickedup 17 of those yards on a sweep to start the Yellowjackets’ scoring drive late in the game.
Greenfield quarterback Miles Cavitt picked up 18 yards on a quarterback keeper to move the ball down to the 13. Cavitt hit McAlister on the right-side corner of the end zone from nine yards out to give the Yellowjackets their first points of the season.
The special teams for Greenfield had another good game, blocking two extra point attempts. Jeffery Johnson blocked one in the second quarter and Payton Paige blocked the other one in the third quarter.
Johnson also picked off a pass from the Falcons’ quarterback in the second at the Greenfield 12-yard line and returned it 12 yards to halt a scoring threat from the Falcons.
Austin Pence and McAlister each recovered a Lake County fumble.
The Falcons scored twice in the first quarter, one on a 22-yard run by Ricky Boyd and a four-yard run by Price.
Both Price and Boyd scored again in the second quarter. Price scored the Falcons final touchdown with 50.6 seconds remaining in the third quarter on a one-yard plunge.
Although the Falcons built up a 40-0 lead in the third quarter and outgained Greenfield by a wide margin, Greenfield’s defense stepped up on a few occasions.

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