By Doug Chapin

sports@vindy.com

CORTLAND

Judging by the offensive production in the first half, one might not have guessed that Lakeview High’s 49-20 triumph over Struthers on Friday was the opener for each team.

With the offensive units in midseason form, the teams combined for eight touchdowns in 12 first-half possessions.

But after Struthers pulled to within 28-20 with about five minutes remaining in the half, the Lakeview defense clamped down and held the Wildcats without a first down the rest of the game.

“We’ve got a lot of things to work on,” Lakeview coach Tom Pavlansky said. “We’re far from perfect, we’ve got a ways to go to be a good team.

“I’m proud of our effort tonight,” Pavlansky said. “But we’ve got to get better in a hurry because next week we have a big challenge [Howland].

“We have to keep on getting better. The kids are working hard and we’ve seen progress from the first scrimmage against Jefferson to the second scrimmage against Canfield,” Pavlansky said. “We know tonight with Struthers we were going to have our hands full.”

The Bulldogs certainly did, especially in the first quarter as the visitors scored on their first two possessions, scoring on a 31-yard run by quarterback Tommy Kimbro and on a 40-yard run by Mike Maillis. Those touchdowns were sandwiched around an 85-yard kickoff return for a score by Lakeview’s Toma Leveto.

Lakeview scored on three straight possessions for a 28-12 lead before Keith Auman’s 12-yard scoring run and a two-point conversion pass from Kimbro to Adam Ryczaj made it 28-20.

Lakeview responded with a 23-yard scoring pass from junior quarterback Anthony Franco to Leveto with 52 seconds remaining in the half. Franco tacked on two short scoring runs in the second half.

Franco completed 12 of his 15 pass attempts for 113 yards. He added 51 yards rushing.

Kimbro, a sophomore, was solid for the Wildcats also. He completed nine out of 17 pass attempts for 75 yards and ran for 77 yards on just six carries.

Second-year coach Dallas Saunders saw his team play well at times.

“We have a veteran offensive line and we relied on them in running the ball well,” Saunders said. “We moved the ball OK at times, but we just couldn’t put it all together. We are not an offense that is going to win a shootout. We need to play good defense.”

“We didn’t win the one-on-one match-ups we had to win. They did a good job and at times we did a poor job. It’s a credit to them and some of it goes on our shoulders also.”

The game was an All-American Conference White Division contest which put a different spin on things in week one of the season.

“There was a sense of urgency, we didn’t want to start off in the conference 0-1,” Pavlansky said. “We believe this was the most important game in the state of Ohio because I think we’re the only ones playing a conference game this week.”