NDCL vs. South football: Lions dominate on the ground, down Rebels 35-21

Aug. 19—NDCL entered Harry Winters stadium on Aug. 19 with revenge on its mind as the Lions kicked off their football season against South.

After an early South touchdown, NDCL took control of the game and never looked back.

The Lions defense handled a pair of late charges by the Rebels for the 35-21 victory and moved to 1-0 on the season.

South got on the scoreboard first with a six-yard touchdown when Tyrone Singleton turned bounced outside and won a footrace to the pylon. The score was set up by a perfectly placed ball by Colin Quinlan to Bryce Figler.

But NDCL challenged the Rebels on the ground, as it contained the South rushing attack to limited yards with every attempt. Coach Andrew Mooney came in knowing the Rebels had weapons all around the field, but if they could limit them to utilize just one they could be poised for a victory.

"The thing about South has always had is some good skill positions," said Mooney. "They've got three or four guys that will try to hurt you. So you have to pick the way that they're going to have to try and beat you. We always try to take away the run first and our defensive staff was ready for that task."

NDCL responded with a rushing touchdown of its own when Burke Buell found his way to pay dirt, also from six yards out. The Lions then took the lead early in the second quarter with a four-yard burst from Angelo Tamburrino.

After the defense forced a three and out, NDCL took to the air on the first play of their next possession as sophomore quarterback Ryan Lipowski found Brandon Smul a step ahead of his defensive back.

But even after Smul caught the ball at the 12, it was anything but smooth sailing for the receiver, as he broke three tackles and juggled an attempt at a strip of the ball as he crossed the goal line.

"I was just thinking about catching the ball and making sure I had it," said Smul. "I locked it in but somebody came from behind and poked it out. I was just trying to stay up from there. One guy tried to pull me down but I got my legs back under me and then I knew I was going to be in."

While they scored one more time through the air, as Lipowski found Luke Peroni at the start of the third quarter for a seven yard score, the Lions did most of their damage from the ground. Buell and Tamburrino both reeled off gains of more than 50 yards with Tamburrino going for 57 on a fourth and 1 for his second score of the game.

"Our quarterback had to come out of the game since his helmet came off the play before and our second string came in," said Tamburrino. "We were a little confused with the play call so I went where I saw the hole and it worked."

Mooney took over the role of offensive line coach this offseason and challenged his unit to make sure that their sophomore quarterback had as little threat as possible through the contest. He was proud of the work that his line did in both pass protection and on the ground.

"Ryan was a man today. We kept telling ourselves during the summer that he was a sophomore and everything he did it was the first time he'd ever done it," said NDCL coach. "To come out on his first start going like that was amazing. I challenged the offensive line with making sure they didn't let their quarterback get dirty. They're a group of seniors and they made his job easy for him."

The thing that did South in was mental mistakes. While they had some nice moments, like three nice catches by Terrion Singleton, with one being a touchdown, the bad outweighed the good in Coach Matt Duffy's eyes.

He highlighted the final two Rebels drives in which they trailed by two scores and got into the red zone on both occasions. Yet both times they walked away scoreless, once thanks to a stuffed quarterback draw and once due to a pass breakup on the one yard line.

"It's a life lesson of football. We had a lot of kids do a lot of good things on certain plays," said Duffy. "But you can have plays where 10 guys do great and one messes up and that'll cost you. You have one misstep and that can hinder a whole drive. It's good to learn early in the season because when something goes awry, you know how to recover from it."

Both teams return to the turf on Aug. 26. NDCL takes a trip to Olentangy and look to replicate last year's thrilling victory, while South heads to Twinsburg as they look to get their season back on track.