Lake Catholic Rolls Over Archbishop Hoban, 28-6

Just when it appeared was little more than the traditional ground-and-pound team, Cougars quarterback Mark Baniewicz comes along with three touchdown passes to Aaron Phillips to disprove the notion.

Baniewicz found Phillips for three TD passes in the first half to lead host Lake Catholic to a 28-6 victory over Archbishop Hoban on Friday night. Baniewicz had only two passing touchdowns on the season coming into the game.

“It’s been an emphasis for the staff to improve our passing game,” Lake Catholic head football coach Mike Bell said. “The young man’s improving which is what you like to see. We talk about getting better day to day, week to week. I think Mark’s done that. We were very pleased with the way he performed tonight.”

Lake Catholic (8-1 overall, 4-1 in the North Coast League) is ranked fifth in the Associated Press’ Division III state poll and eighth in the Plain Dealer’s Top 25 rankings. The Cougars are second in the Division III, Region 9 computer rankings trailing only Chagrin Falls.

Archbishop Hoban (1-8, 1-3) won its first game of the season last week defeating Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin, 7-3. Needless to say, the Knights’ modest run ended abruptly Friday night at Jerome T. Osborne Sr. Stadium.

The Cougars’ stingy defense clamped down on the Knights and gave them a 353-161 advantage in yards. Hoban didn’t score until 7:42 remained in the fourth quarter.

“It was such a great team effort (on defense). It would be hard to throw that on one guy. You can spread the wealth there with all 11 guys because all 11 of them played really well,” Bell said.

Baniewicz, who threw for 146 yards on 8-of-13 passing, found Phillips for scores of 37 and 13 yards in the first quarter and hooked up again for 37 yards in the second quarter at 6:15. Phillips finished with five catches for 114 yards.

John Stepec found the end zone on a 1-yard run at 9:32 of the third quarter to put the Cougars up, 28-0.

Lake Catholic’s Evan Gormley had 115 yards on 13 rushes, while his Archbishop Hoban counterpart Darshawn James had 99 yards on 24 carries.

Lake Catholic ends its season on the road against Avon (9-0, 6-0), the top ranked team in Division II, on Friday. Game time is 7 p.m.

Archbishop Hoban    0  0  0  6  6

Lake Catholic           14 7 7 0  28

First Quarter

Lake Catholic - Phillips 38 pass from Baniewicz (Korb kick)

Lake Catholic - Phillips 13 pass from Baniewicz (Korb kick)

Second Quarter

Lake Catholic - Phillips 28 pass from Baniewicz (Korb kick)

Third Quarter

Lake Catholic - Stepec 1 run (Korb kick)

Fourth Quarter

Archbishop Hoban - Martter 12 pass from Orsini (kick blocked)