Tonight, Jennie and I went with some friends to see Lake play GlenOak. Two of the best teams in Stark County this year, playing with a shot at the Federal League championship on the line.
Though it's been 12 years now since I graduated from Lake, I am still pretty excited about their football tradition. Lake is the smallest school in the league (Division 2), but has had tremendous success in the last fifteen years under the leadership of their outstanding coach, Jeff Durbin. Durbin's teams have made it to three state championship games, and made the state playoffs more times than any other school in the area in the last 10 and 15 years.
Earlier this season, Lake beat perennial power Canton McKinley in front of a sellout crowd. During homecoming, Lake beat North Canton Hoover 38-7 in an embarrassing blowout. Tonight, against GlenOak, we would see if Lake (5-1) would set itself up to play for the Federal League championship soon against unbeaten Austintown Fitch.
Tonight, Lake absolutely dominated the hapless Golden Eagles, 28-14. The Blue Streaks have an explosive, controlling offense with running back A.J. Workman (38 carries, 176 yards) and all-league quarterback John Rutan. GlenOak was helpless against Lake's offense, and kept giving them the ball! The Eagles' promising junior QB Mike Hartline threw three interceptions to the Blue Streaks' opportunistic defense.
In other words, I still love high school football, and it's great to see my alma mater playing at such a dominant level once again. If they do beat Fitch, people will start to say that Lake could once again roll through the playoffs, and maybe finally win that elusive state championship.
Even if they don't, it's pretty amazing to see a great coach stay for such a long time (16 years now?), and Jeff Durbin's teams always seem disciplined, competitive, and exciting.
We had a great time with the Debevecs and the Greynolds, and even bumped into Rob Hardy!
Did Allie go? No, but she did make it to dinner at the Hartville Kitchen with us before the game. What baby in her right mind would miss that?
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