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Lake County Sentinel
Blue Devils pound  Cuyahoga Hts. 45-13 

BY TIM SHIRER
SPORTS EDITOR
In the past things have not gone well when the Wickliffe Blue Devils have faced the Cuyahoga Hts. football team. On Friday night the Blue Devils got a little redemption on their way to a 45-13 pounding of Cuyahoga Hts. With the win the Blue Devils move to 3-0 on the season.

Wickliffe wasted no time beginning their domination of Cuyahoga Hts as the Blue Devils received the kickoff and began the possession at their own 35. On just the second play of the drive with 11:08 remaining on the first quarter game clock Senior Chase Fortkamp rumbled 61 yards to the endzone to give the Blue Devils a 7-0 lead after Isaiah Bolon converted the extra point (Bolon has now converted 16 of 18 extra points on the season). The Blue Devils never looked back.

On Cuyahoga Hts. first play from scrimmage Wickliffe Senior Mikey Moon recovered a fumble giving possession back to the visitor’s 42-yard line. Two plays later after an 18-yard run by Senior Donnell Jackson, Fortkamp once again took the ball into the endzone this time from 24 yards out giving Wickliffe a 14-0 lead with 9:10 remaining in the first quarter.

The visitors held onto the ball for the next 7:27, the drive ended when Junior Kicker Owen Schuckert converted a 39-yard field goal to pull Cuyahoga Hts. to within 14-3 with 1:43 left in the first.

Just 15 second later on the kickoff Bolon blew the game open with an explosive 88-yard kickoff return extending the Blue Devils lead to 21-3 with 1:28 left in the quarter.

Cuyahoga Hts then had put together another extended drive aided by a defensive pass interference call. Heights was forced to attempt a field goal after Junior Thomas Wenz stalled the drive with a sack of Cuyahoga Hts. Senior QB Luke Torgerson. The field goal attempted failed as Blue Devils Senior Mason Bala thwarted it. That’s when Senior Zak Esteves picked up the ball and darted 75 yards to the endzone giving Wickliffe a 28-3 lead with 5:12 remaining in the first half. The TD was his second blocked field goal for a touchdown of his high school career. Esteves commented after the game when he picked up the ball he thought, “Is this going to happen again?” And it did!

Heights scored their only TD of the game with :56 remaining in the first half when Junior Ryan Krajewski ran in from one yard out closing the gap to 28-10.

The second half began the way most of the first half went with dominating Wickliffe defense as Senior Duke Stanczak intercepted Torgerson’s pass on the first play of the second half. The Blue Devils turned the turnover into points at the 8:22 mark when Bala kept the ball, running it in from 4 yards out for the TD giving Wickliffe the 35-10 lead.

Just 2:44 later after the Blue Devils defense stopped Cuyahoga Hts. one more time Fortkamp crossed into the endzone for the third time in the game, this time from 25 yards and starting the running clock as Wickliffe led 42-10 with 6:12 left on the game clock in the third quarter.
Bolon not only converted all his extra point attempts in the game but with :40 left in the third he booted a 35-yard field goal to finish off the Blue Devils scoring giving them a 45-10 lead.

The final points of the game came with just 1:20 left in the game when Schuckert converted a 31-yard field goal to pull Cuyahoga Hts to within 32 at 45-13.

Esteves’ fumble return for the TD was not his only impact on the game as he disrupted the Heights offense all night having a half a dozen tackles for loss.

Fortkamp who impacted both the defense and offense as he has done during his entire Blue Devils career had another stellar night running the ball as he carried the rock seven times for 149 yards and three TD’s.

The Blue Devils will be back in action on Thursday night at Wickliffe when they welcome the Orange Lions at 7:00 p.m.
tshirer@lakecountysentinel.com follow Tim on Twitter @TBBucsTim or follow us on Twitter @LCSentinelcom 
​POSTED 09/12/2020 00:22
Wickliffe Senior Zak Esteves finishes off his recovery off a blocked field goal for a TD.