By Brian Harmon
For The Examiner
As Bellefontaine head coach Jason Brown expected, his team got a fight early from Indian Lake on Friday.
But the visiting Chieftains were able to dominate the final three quarters for a 48-14 win that keeps the Lakers winless on the season.
Bellefontaine improves to 4-1 and the Lakers are now 0-5.
“We started slow, and we certainly didn’t play up to our standard to start the game,” said Brown, who saw his team locked in a 7-7 tie with the Lakers after one quarter. “But give the Lake credit, they played hard and started fast, and we knew we’d get their best effort.”
Indian Lake opened the contest with an impressive 18-play, 78-yard drive that took up the first six minutes of the game. The drive was capped off by a 7-yard touchdown pass from Lane Tucci to Chase Baldwin to give the Lakers a 7-0 lead.
Bellefontaine answered quickly, though, with the Chiefs needing only four plays to even the score after Tavien St. Clair found C.J. Wilson for a 60-yard scoring strike to bring the score to 7-7.
Both teams would trade punts and turnovers into the second quarter, until the Bellefontaine defense got the spark the team needed.
On a 2nd-and-10 play from the Lakers’ 30-yard line, Chiefs defensive lineman Haiden Manns intercepted a tipped pass and returned it 33 yards for a touchdown. With 8:19 left in the first half, it gave the Chiefs their first lead in the game at 14-7.
A revived Chiefs squad tacked on two more scores before the half: a Chris Fogan 8-yard run and a 12-yard touchdown pass from St. Clair to Wilson, to take a 28-7 lead into halftime.
The Chiefs added two more scores in the third quarter.
They used a 9-yard touchdown pass from St. Clair to Riley Neer and a 2-yard touchdown plunge from St. Clair to take a 41-7 lead into the final quarter and initiate the “running clock” for the remainder of the game.
St. Clair added one more touchdown pass to his night, a 10-yard strike to Kaden Reames to make the score 48-7.
The Lakers would add a fourth quarter rushing touchdown from Drake Cosby to close out the scoring at 48-14.
The Chiefs relied on the arm of quarterback St. Clair on this night, as the standout sophomore produced one of the best nights of his career so far, going 19-of-21 for 275 yards and four touchdowns. He also rushed for another score.
Wilson also had a big night with seven catches for 152 yards and two touchdowns.
The Lakers were led by Tucci’s 108 yards on 13-of-22 passing and a touchdown.
Cosby led the IL ground attack with 67 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries, and Isaac Morrison led the Indian Lake receivers with five grabs for 60 yards.
The Chiefs return home next Friday to battle Tecumseh, while Indian Lake will host Benjamin Logan.