ELIDA — On Elida’s first offensive play in a 52-14 win over Lima Central Catholic in its football opener Friday night, the Bulldogs’ quarterback Logan Alexander kept the ball himself for a 10-yard gain.
It was a preview of what was going to come the rest of the game.
The senior quarterback rolled up 247 yards rushing on 22 carries, rushed for two touchdowns and passed for another to lead Elida to 448 yards total offense, 379 of it on the ground.
“This is what we’re going to do,” Elida coach Jason Carpenter said. “We’re going to be a run-oriented team and when teams load the box we can throw a little bit. We think we’ve got a pretty experienced offensive line and they did a pretty good job tonight freeing up some holes.”
On the fourth play of the game, LCC’s offensive line freed up a large hole and quarterback Ethan O’Connor went through it for 56 yards for a touchdown that put the Thunderbirds up 7-0.
But that was one of the few highlights of the night for LCC. Elida, which scored on eight of its 10 offensive possessions, built a 45-7 lead before LCC scored again on a 75-yard interception by Dru Edwards early in the fourth quarter.
After O’Connor’s touchdown, Cole Harmon returned LCC’s kickoff to the Thunderbirds’ 30-yard line, then scored three plays later on a four-yard run to tie the game 7-7.
Alexander made it 14-7 with a 21-yard touchdown run the next time Elida had the ball and he hit Noah Mosley with a 24-yard TD pass for a 21-7 lead late in the first quarter.
Harmon, who rushed for 63 yard on nine carries, scored again on a 25-yard run, Brian Upshaw had an 11-yard touchdown run and Nathan Stewart kicked a 26-yard field goal for a 38-7 halftime lead.
The Bulldogs’ final two scores came on a five-yard run by Alexander and a 24-yard run by Sam Quaintance.
LCC had only 151 yards total offense and 56 of those yards came on one play.
“Right after that first drive you could see their eyes were wide open and once they calmed down they executed the game plan perfectly,” Carpenter said about Elida’s defense. “We only gave up seven points and any time you do that it’s a great defensive effort. I really liked our tackling tonight.”
Alexander’s 200-yard rushing game was the second of his career. But he said the credit for that belonged elsewhere.
“I had one last year but I’m not looking at that. I thank God and my line for tonight. We have four returning starters on the line and a couple guys who have been around for a while and know what’s going on. They kept me untouched for the most part. They did really well tonight and communicated perfectly,” he said.
“We’re a pretty experienced offense. After that first play (O’Connor’s touchdown) we were like, ‘Let’s get it. It’s our turn.’ And after that the defense locked down and we were fine the rest of the game.”
After the game, Elida’s players did 33 push-ups. The significance of that was that the Bulldogs are trying to win the Western Buckeye League title for the first time in 33 years, Alexander said.
“It’s a cliche but we want to take it one week at a time and get the WBL. We’ve been doing 33 push-ups after every practice and every game,” he said.
The Bulldogs claimed the Jim Dally-Paul Greene Hall of Fame Classic trophy, named for the two Hall of Fame coaches from Elida and LCC. The trophy, originally purchased by The Lima News, was awarded to the winner of the Elida-LCC game froom 2002-2006 before the series stopped for seven years before returning this year.
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