Toms runs wild in Lucas victory over Warrensville Heights
LUCAS — Why mess with a good thing?
Warrensville Heights couldn't stop the run, especially Logan Toms, so Lucas football gave the visitors a steady diet of their senior tailback on Friday night on the way to a 49-14 victory at Bob Wine Field.
In the third quarter, the Cubs ran 14 plays, 13 of them were runs by Toms. The senior finished the night with 210 yards rushing and four touchdowns.
"I didn't think they were very balanced in their alignment defensively," Lucas coach Scott Spitler said. "They were really overloading our left side, trying to take away Zach Diehl. If they want to give us Logan, we'll take Logan.
"Zach Diehl and Aidan Culler did a whale of a job blocking for us tonight, and I think that's where we won the game tonight, in the trenches."
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Toms agreed with his veteran coach.
"A game like this, we had to be as physical as we could and try to wear them down," he said. "I don't get yards without them. Tank (Keaton Day), Aidan Culler and Russ (Conn) worked their butts off tonight and blocked until the whistle."
Dan Hockensmith put the Cubbies on the board with an 8-yard touchdown run with 7:24 left in the first quarter and set up the next score by recovering a fumble on a pooch kick.
Toms did the honors with a 24-yard burst around the right end, and Lucas was up 14-0 midway through the opening period.
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The Tigers showed how dangerous they could be with two scores in the last 4:25 of the opening quarter to tie the game at 14.
Even though Warrensville Heights came in with an 0-3 record, its first three opponents were a combined 9-0.
"They've got speed at every skill position. They've got nice length defensively," Spitler said. "I'll tell you what, they played a very tough schedule against Division II schools. We knew they had the capacity to put it in the end zone at any second."
Fortunately for Lucas, the Tigers didn't put it in the end zone the rest of the game.
Toms also scored on runs of 25, 5 and 2 yards, doing all of his damage in the first three quarters.
For the second game in a row, Lucas (2-2) did not attempt a pass.
"We just felt with their speed, if we could get the job done in the trenches tonight, that that's where we wanted to keep it," Spitler said. "That's kind of our game plan, and I didn't feel like they got us in a situation where we needed to take a chance (by passing).
"If you look at their game film in previous weeks, they come back on teams in the second half because of interceptions and turnovers and stuff like that. We wanted to take care of the football and not give them an opportunity to get back in the game. We wanted to control the clock and really do what we do."
The Cubs also played a strong defensive game, picking off four passes. Graysen Jackson had the flashiest pick, which he turned into a 49-yard touchdown late in the second quarter to stake Lucas to a 28-14 advantage at the half.
"We kind of got them in those you-know-what downs where we knew they had to throw the ball, and we were able to attack the ball in the air, and we got some nice interceptions," Spitler said.
Diehl and Culler each recorded an interception, and Toms even got in on the act with a pick late in the fourth quarter.
"That felt good. I dropped one last week and got a hard time for it," Toms said with a smile.
This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Lucas football team evens record at 2-2 with 49-14 victory Friday
