Lake Catholic Puts Benedictine Under Water in 30-6 victory

made sure the phrase, “when it rains, it pours,” was more than just a handy saying for describing the evening’s lousy weather conditions as the Cougars washed away previously unbeaten Benedictine, 30-6, Friday night in Bedford.

Senior Ryan Gormley ran for 182 yards on 15 carries with two touchdown runs of 21 and 52 yards, and the Cougars’ defense produced five interceptions and a fumble recovery as Lake Catholic rebounded from its first loss of the season.

Lake Catholic improved to 5-1, 1-1, while Benedictine fell to 5-1, 1-1 in the North Coast League Blue Division contest at Bearcat Stadium. The Cougars are fourth and the Bengals second in the Division III, Region 9 state computer standings.

Friday’s game featured the Bengals’ high-powered offense that averaged 34 points a game against the Cougars’ smash-mouth running game that averaged 18 points.

It would seem the Cougars’ offense made quite a recovery after last week.

Gormley’s 182 yards are a season best and his two scores ended a two-game drought and brought his season total to seven rushing TDs.

“It’s good to get back on the scoreboard,” Gormley said, “but I don’t really care about my own stats. As long as our team’s winning, it doesn’t matter to me.”

Coach Mike Bell knew the weather was supposed to be horrible on Friday night, and he prepared his team accordingly. Despite losing a fumble, Cougars junior quarterback Mark Baniewicz took great care in handing off the ball and had two touchdown runs of 2 and 21 yards for the team’s first two scores in the first quarter. Baniewicz finished with 75 yards on 16  rushes.

“We talked all week about the weather conditions and making sure with the running game that we stick that ball in the belly button to keep it close to our body and don’t let that thing hang out loose. Outside of the under-center snaps, where we had some problems, I thought (Baniewicz) did well with it,” Bell said.

The Cougars’ defense shut down Benedictine’s powerful offense as Bengals leading rusher Bryan Lacey had 66 yards on 14 rushes falling well below his 149.6 yard average. Lacey scored Benedictine’s only touchdown on a 5-yard run early in the fourth quarter at 8:13.

Benedictine quarterback Dan Piascik, who has seven touchdown passes and averages 163.6 yards a game, had a horrendous evening with only five completions in 21 passes for 79 yards.

Oddly enough, Piascik completed as many passes to his Bengals’ receivers as he did Cougars’ defenders as Zach Hawkins had two, while Zach Frate, Ryan Fyffe and Aaron Phillips each had one.

“We felt coming in they were going to have to throw the ball some on us to have some success. I think the weather conditions hurt them there. Our defensive line did good enough to keep them from having too much success in the run and forced them to throw,” Bell said.

Lake Catholic hosts Notre Dame Cathedral Latin on Friday at 7 p.m.

Lake Catholic  13 10  7 0  30

Benedictine     0    0   0 6    6

1st Quarter

Lake Catholic - Baniewicz 2 run (Gormley kick)

Lake Catholic - Baniewicz 21 run (kick blocked)

2nd Quarter

Lake Catholic - Gormley 24 field goal

Lake Catholic - Gormley 21 run (Gormley kick)

3rd Quarter

Lake Catholic - Gormley 52 run (Gormley kick)

4th Quarter

Benedictine - Lacey 5 run (run failed)