Lima Senior players celebrate winning the Toledo City League championship Friday night at Spartan Stadium.
Justin Dierkes | The Lima News
LIMA — Lima Senior were able to accomplish something on Friday night that the school hasn’t seen since these players’ parents were in high school, win a conference championship in football with a 26-14 victory against Toledo Start.
The night started off nice outside weather wise, but halfway through the game, a light constant mist covered the entire stadium as the temperature dropped into the low 50s. This affected the game for both teams.
In the first quarter, the Spartans (8-2 overall, 6-0 TCL) came out red hot on both sides of the ball against conference opponent Start (5-5, 5-1 TCL).
In fact, the first two drives for Lima Senior saw a touchdown; the first from
sophomore quarterback Janiaus Hall to senior ride Receiver Zavion Garner on a crossing route to the right side of the end zone, and the second from Hall to Garner once again, who caught a deep ball in the end zone to put the Spartans up 14-0 at the end of the first quarter.
From there, Start went down the field and with a great balance of run and pass, and managed to get into the end zone and convert the 2-point conversion to make the game 14-8 Spartans. That would be the score going into the half.
In the third quarter, the field was slippery and led to bad kicking conditions. In fact, Lima Senior missed an extra point earlier in the game. However, the Spartans were able to capitalize on a kickoff when they recovered an onside kick on the opening kickoff. With possession of the ball, the Spartans drive down the field and punched in a score from senior running back Jaylen Jones from 2 yards out. That gave the Spartans a 20-8 lead.
The rain played a factor with Start as well. But, it drove down the field and picked up where it left off from its last touchdown. A steady dose of run plays, balanced with a good passing game, helped once again, as a one on one
matchup saw a 30-yard touchdown pass to the corner of the end zone to make it 20-14.
However, in the fourth quarter, the Spartans squad stepped up on defense to pin the Start offense inside its own 5 yard line. Start wasn’t able to get a first down and was forced to punt, to give the ball to Lima Senior at the Start
34 yard line. On offense, the Spartans displayed a drive that metodically helped Lima Senior put the game away. The Spartans put up a big score from senior wide Receiver Kaden Hampton, who scored on a screen pass from Hall for his third touchdown pass of the night.
Hampton hit the jets and crossed the pylon after a juke and a broken tackle to give Lima Senior a 26-14 lead.
Later in the fourth, with five minutes left in the game, Start drove down the field once again, and got the ball into the red zone. This time however, the Spartans’ defense came up big with another turnover on the night, a forced
fumble on the goal line, that propelled the Spartans to victory with a 26-14 win and the outright Toledo City Conference championship, Lima Senior first football conference title since 1996.
Lima Senior head coach Bill Lawrence was proud of his guys for the season they had and for fighting Friday night against a tough Start team. “I’m 100 proud of this team and proud of these seniors. It’s my first year here and I knew when I took the job they had a great senior class. Now we didn’t have a lot of things go our way, we struggled a little bit with our rhythm and tempo, and that starts with me as a coach, I got to go to film and see what they did, but it sounds like we are going to host a playoff game and we are pretty excited here.”
With the goal of a league championship accomplished, Lawrence spoke about what the expectations are as the Spartans head to tournament play and play host to a tournament game.
“Hopefully we’ll be the sixth or seventh seed. Now we’re going to get to work.
Coaches are going to get to work Sunday and we are going to enjoy it tomorrow and Sunday go back to work and our goal is to win our first playoff game right here in Spartan Stadium. So we’ve got to have a great week of practice but with that
being said, itsa great night to be a Spartan.”
Playoff pairings will be announced Sunday.
Justin Dierkes wrote this story for LimaScoresd.com. Reach The Lima News sports department at 567-242-0451.
