Oak Hills High School football starts strong but Lakota West ends with the shutout
It's unlike Mitch Bolden to throw an interception on the first possession of a game.
But when that exact scenario played out Friday night at Firebird Stadium, everyone on the Lakota West sideline knew their star quarterback would respond.
The senior did.
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Lakota started slow, struggled at times, and left Friday night's game relatively unsatisfied with its performance. The Firebirds moved to 4-0, however, with a 31-0 shutout of Oak Hills in the Greater Miami Conference matchup ahead of a big game next week against Princeton.
"Being a quarterback, you have to stay cool throughout all the bad," Bolden said of his early interception, which was picked off by Highlander defensive back Brody Tew. "You just have to stay even-keeled and don't let anything get to you. I knew we would bounce back."
The Highlanders stole the momentum early and threatened inside the red zone following the turnover. But as Oak Hills lined up for a field goal to take an early lead, Lakota West leaned on its star cornerback, Malik Hartford, an Ohio State commit, to make a big play. After the pre-kick snap, Hartford shot a gap, stretched his arms out and swatted away Oak Hills' best shot at putting points on the board. From there, the Firebirds found their groove and never looked back.
"All week, coach (John) Nicol, our special teams coach, said it was going to be open," Hartford said. "I was lucky enough to get it by my fingertips. I didn't want them to score any points."
Lakota got on the board in the first when receiver Trent Lloyd took a handoff 69 yards to the house after Oak Hills had consistently stymied the Firebirds' first few possessions. Bolden then added a touchdown run from one yard out in the second and a 27-yard field goal from Tyler Bohn put the Firebirds up 17-0 at the half.
On the other side, Highlander quarterback Jaxon Schreiber found ways to move the chains with his ability to create plays from nothing while scrambling. But as has happened too often to the liking of Oak Hills coach Justin Roden this season, those drives were often stalled by a penalty, dropped pass or missed assignment. Those promising drives resulted in no points.
"We are struggling on offense with finishing," Roden said. "We have for two and a half weeks now 20-to-20 (yard lines) been a pretty good football team, and we either get called for a penalty, for a hold, or we turn it over, or we blow an assignment. And I think at this point, it's really just mental."
Roden saw some good things Friday night, however, despite the shutout. With an injury-riddled roster, Oak Hills hung tough with a team that put up 59 and 49 points respectively in its last two games.
"I just told them, we're a much-improved team, and we're playing physical," Roden added. "...I want to earn respect and bring that back to the West Side, so I'm proud of our kids."
In the second half, Bolden continued to find his groove. After leading a long drive downfield in the fourth, Firebird running back Eudes Gonzalez Jr. punched in a score to give Lakota West a 24-0 lead. And then in the fourth from 10-yards out, Bolden connected with his target Scott Johnson for a touchdown to complete the scoring.
Bolden's father, Lakota West head coach Tom Bolden, left Friday's game looking forward to fine-tuning some aspects of his team's play.
"We grinded it out. At times, it wasn't pretty," Tom Bolden said. "Wasn't a lot of fluidity to the game. It was tough. We might have been looking ahead a little bit but hats off to Oak Hills. Coach Justin Roden has got them organized and they're doing really good things on offense and defense and his kids are playing hard."
Mitch Bolden finished with 150 yards in the air and 103 on the ground. Lloyd rushed five times for 105 yards for Lakota West, while Remy Brennan had four catches for 48 yards. Jacob Asbeck led Lakota in tackles with eight. For Oak Hills, Schreiber threw for 99 yards, and Jacob Day had five catches for 46 yards. Cooper Harrison added nine tackles defensively.
Lakota West 31, Oak Hills 0:
Lakota West 7 10 0 14-31
Oak Hills 0 0 0 0-0
LW − Lloyd 69 run (Bohn kick)
LW − Bolden 1 run (Bohn kick)
LW − Bohn 27 kick
LW − Johnson 10 pass from Bolden (Bohn kick)
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Lakota West knocks off Oak Hills in GMC matchup
