![\"Lake](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/TNH-L-LECFootball-01.jpg\")
Lake Erie football coach David Price celebrates after his team beat Post on a Hail Mary touchdown pass Sept. 14, 2024. (News-Herald file)<\/p>\nDavid Price has spent two years building the Lake Erie football program.<\/p>\n
It hasn\u2019t been easy. The Storm were 2-9 in Price\u2019s first season of 2024, then 2-9 again last season.<\/p>\n
There were growing pains along the way. With Year 3 almost here \u2014 LEC opens its season Sept. 5 at 3 p.m. at Jack Britt Stadium against St. Anselm from New Hampshire -\u2014 Price said it\u2019s time to win.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe amount of support here is unreal,\u201d said Price following his team\u2019s practice Sept. 1. \u201cThis place deserves a winner, and that\u2019s been at the forefront the past three years. It\u2019s time to win. It\u2019s time to win now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lake Erie football coach David Price celebrates after his team beat Post on a Hail Mary touchdown pass Sept. 14, 2024. (News-Herald file)<\/p>\n
Price and his staff have instilled a \u201cwin the week\u201d mentality of going 1-0. For a program that\u2019s won just four games in two seasons, nothing would be sweeter than a 1-0 start.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s time to figure out who this year\u2019s team is going to be,\u201d said Price. \u201c\u2026 1-0, momentum, getting off on the right foot is everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
First, the Storm need a quarterback to lead the offense. It\u2019s been a three-player battle during the preseason among Jahmeir Spain from Cincinnati, Josh Takats of Perrysburg and Hunter Newell who hails from Indiana.<\/p>\n
Price said the QBs have different traits.<\/p>\n
Price on Spain: \u201cHe\u2019s as athletic as it gets. He\u2019s a little outside the box with his throwing angles but he makes it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Price on Takats: \u201cHe\u2019s the ultimate leader. He knows the offense through and through. He can make all the throws.\u201d<\/p>\n
Price on Newell: \u201cHe\u2019s a gunslinger. Love the moxie he comes with. In the time that he played last year, he had confidence in every throw that he made. Right or wrong or indifferent, he played with conviction.\u201d<\/p>\n
The trio of QBs are young. Spain is a redshirt freshman who didn\u2019t see action in 2025. Takats is a sophomore who played in four games last season. Newell is a redshirt sophomore who started against Kentucky Wesleyan last season. In that game, he threw for 187 yards and a touchdowns and ran for 47 yards.<\/p>\n
Price plans to announce LEC\u2019s starting QB on Sept. 2.<\/p>\n
Whoever is throwing the ball will have weapons, beginning with 6-foot-3 tight end and co-captain Devin Morgan, who made four starts in 2025 and led LEC in receiving yards with 313 on 21 receptions with three touchdowns.<\/p>\n
Price and his staff are also high on a pair of 6-foot-3 wide receivers in Dalen Stovall from Stow and Jason Hewlett from Youngstown.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also a veteran line on offense anchored by co-captain Joey Rozak of Wadsworth, and one that welcomes a sophomore at center in Jalen Joyce, who has the respect of his teammates as the other co-captain.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur mindset on offense, we\u2019ve got to run the ball,\u201d said Morgan. \u201cIn the past, we haven\u2019t been able to do that successfully so I feel this year we\u2019ve focused on being able to run the ball. Like Coach Price said, inside run. We do that every day, and I feel like our O-line is really locked in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Defensively, LEC will need to improve on allowing the 32 points per game it gave up on average. Price said the unit got bigger and faster, especially at linebacker, where 6-1, 237-pound co-captain Kemari Ward intends to bring toughness and physicality.<\/p>\n
Ward is originally from Brooklyn, N.Y., and will be a graduate student in the fall.<\/p>\n
\u201cToughness. Toughness,\u201d said Ward, when asked what he will bring to the defense. \u201cJust being where I\u2019m from, Brooklyn, N.Y., everything\u2019s about grit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grit and toughness are never bad things to bring to a football game. Ward said he\u2019s ready, and wants his teammates to follow on Sept. 5.<\/p>\n
\u201cStarting 1-0 is everything,\u201d he said of the importance of the season opener. \u201cThe community needs it. They\u2019ve been waiting for it. The school needs it. We as a brotherhood, the coaching staff, we all need it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Price also feels the buildup to the opener. For him, it goes beyond one game on LEC\u2019s 2026 schedule. It\u2019s about building, starting back in 2024, when he arrived in Painesville.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a culmination of not just an off-season\u2019s worth of work, it\u2019s a culmination of three years worth of work,\u201d said Price. \u201cWe\u2019ve put the work in, the sweat equity has been put in, not just by me but our staff, our players, the administration. Everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
LEC schedule<\/p>\n
Sept. 5 Saint Anselm, 3 p.m.<\/p>\n
Sept. 12 at Wheeling, 4 p.m.<\/p>\n
Sept. 19 at Walsh, 7 p.m.<\/p>\n
Sept. 26 Ohio Dominican, 6 p.m.<\/p>\n
Oct. 3 Hillsdale, 1 p.m.<\/p>\n
Oct. 10 at Kentucky Wesleyan, 4 p.m.<\/p>\n
Oct. 17 Northwood, 2 p.m.<\/p>\n
Oct. 24 Thomas More, 2 p.m.<\/p>\n
Oct. 31 at Tiffin, noon<\/p>\n
Nov. 7 at Findlay, noon<\/p>\n
Nov. 14 Ashland, 2 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Price has spent two years building the Lake Erie football program. It hasn\u2019t been easy. The Storm…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276747,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[116017,6743,136,138,137,6608,116018],"class_list":["post-276746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-coach-david-price","tag-college-football","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-lake-erie-college","tag-the-storm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}