LIMA, Ohio — The opportunities were there, but Start wasn’t able to take advantage of them at Lima Stadium on Friday night.
Twice Start fumbled inside Lima Senior’s 5-yard line and also threw a goal line interception as the team dropped a 26-14 decision to Lima Senior in a City League winner-take-all contest.
The victory gives Lima Senior the City League championship in its first year in the league. It is the first time Lima Senior (8-2, 6-0 City) has won a league football title since capturing the Greater Miami Conference in 1996, the same year Lima Senior won the Division I state championship.
“Football is blocking, tackling, and taking care of the football,” said first-year Start coach Nate James, whose team is 5-5, 5-1 in the City League. “That was a good game, so when you get those opportunities you have to take advantage of them.
“We had two goal-line fumbles. In a two-score game, you can’t have that.”
Start actually seemed to be in business when Naheem Walker picked off a pass by Lima Senior quarterback Ja’Niaus Hall and returned it to the Lima Senior 6. But a block in the back — the first of 16 Start penalties — pushed the ball back to the 21. The drive did get inside the red zone, but penalties pushed Start back to the 21 and quarterback Billy Wertz was intercepted at the goal line.
“All the time, people want to talk about our offense, but I tell everyone we have a really good defense,” said first-year Lima Senior coach Bill Lawrence, whose team will host a Division II, Region 8 playoff game next week.
“The defense stepped up tonight. They bent a little, but they didn’t break.”
Trailing 14-0 at the beginning of the second quarter, Start got a big play from Josiah Jacobs, who had a pick-six on Hall’s short pass.
Adon Grey made it two big plays in a row when he recovered an onside kick for Start at the 50. Start drove to the Lima Senior 9, but on first-and-goal Jonah Hall fumbled with Lima Senior recovering at the six.
“We have special kids; we just need to get better at the fundamentals of football,” James said. “We are moving in the right direction.”
Lima Senior turned the onside recovery trick on Start to open the second half. The recovery gave Lima Senior the ball at the 42, and five plays later Jalen Jones bulled in from 2 yards out to give Lima the momentum and a 20-8 lead.
But Start, which had won six of the past eight TCL titles, didn’t back down. A 5-play, 45-yard drive ended when Wertz tossed a 22-yard TD strike to Marvon Thompson, who leapt over the defender and pulled the ball away from him in the front of the end zone. The score pulled Start within 20-14 late in the third quarter.
“I’m proud of the kids and the way they fought,” James said. “It didn’t end the way we wanted it to, but this is the first step for us. We just have to get better at the football part of it.”
For Lima Senior, Hall finished the day 17-of-37 passing for 279 yards. Hall, a sophomore, had TD passes of 3 and 29 yards to Zaveon Garner in the first quarter and a 24-yard TD strike to Kaden Hampton with 5:37 to go that gave Lima Senior a 12-point lead.
“When I took the job, a championship was the first thing we talked about,” said Lawrence, who took the Lima Senior job in April.
“Any time you can be a champion, it is a great feeling, no matter what year in the league you are. Our senior were great all year long.
“But give Start credit, it was a good football game. Two teams just going at it.”
First Published October 21, 2023, 2:58 a.m.
