By John Bassetti

sports@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Despite four lost fumbles, including one on a muffed punt return, and two interceptions, East took care of business against Lakeside and beat the visiting Dragons, 35-12, to raise its record to 2-1 — an achievement that doesn’t bear a resemblance to early-season starts of past Golden Bear teams.

Zane Cylar threw for a touchdown and ran for another and, despite two interceptions, passed for 144 yards and ran for 61 more on 10 carries

Also something out of the ordinary with East was its kicking game that saw Vincent Steele convert all five point-after attempts he tried.

After Marshall Herron’s 54-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to tie the game at 6 with 7:54 left in the first period, Steele’s first PAT put East ahead for the first time — and for good — at 7-6.

Fortunately for the Golden Bears (2-1), they weren’t hurt — points-wise — by four first half turnovers: three fumbles, including one while a punt return was muffed, and an interception.

However, the tables were turned in the second half when Delshawn Petrosky picked off Lakeside quarterback Johnny Anservitz’s pass and returned it 67 yards for a touchdown to give East a 21-6 lead in the third quarter.

East coach Brian Marrow said that his team and staff will be back this morning watching film because, when a team has a losing culture, it doesn’t want to go backward.

“That’s where we want to be [at 2-1] because we know we can win, but I wasn’t pleased that we played a ragged game,” Marrow said of four turnovers [in the first half] and 104 yards in penalties for the game.

“But I give my guys credit for being able to overcome a game like that. The main thing is that we got the win, but I didn’t like how we did it. We got a lot of stuff to clean up, but I’m proud of them getting the win and being 2-1. I don’t know when they’ve been over .500, but we’re shooting for better if we clean all this stuff [turnovers and penalties] up.”

Marrow also felt that Cylar was protected very well when he attempted to pass.

“After taking some flak the first couple weeks, our offensive line did a fantastic job, especially in pass protection, but we’ve [staff and players] still got to make smart decisions and get prepared better,” he said.

Starting with film review, Marrow’s Golden Bears will work to go 1-0 against Niles next week.

Lakeside (1-2) had 17 penalties for 136 yards and failed to capitalize on East’s early mistakes.

“The door was wide open for us because East, despite fumbles a couple times early, didn’t make that many mistakes, overall [when Lakeside’s staff studied film on East in preparing for the game],” coach Buzz Edwards said.

Soon after Lakeside took a 6-0 lead, the Dragons attempted an onside kick and East’s Herron picked it up and returned it for a touchdown.

“We were only about a quarter-inch away from getting that,” Edwards said. “We need to do a better job capitalizing on other teams’ mistakes.”

The visitors weren’t able to convert any of East’s four first-half turnovers [three fumble recoveries and an interception] into points. “I was surprised because they left the door open for us.”

Of the lack of pressure, Edwards said, “East is solid on that line; they’re good up front. Watching on film, that’s what stood out to me was how good they were on both sides of the ball.”

Jose Cruz had two fumble recoveries for Lakeside.