A 2-0 start has happened often for the Lake Erie Football team \u2014 only once in program history for those keeping track.<\/p>\n
In 2021, the Storm started 3-0. How this season\u2019s version of LEC football plays out is anyone\u2019s guess, but two games into 2026, it\u2019s looking pretty good after Coach David Price\u2019s team won at Wheeling, 23-7 on Sept. 12.<\/p>\n
Getting to 2-0 on in West Virginia wasn\u2019t easy. The first half was played in a downpour and with two lightning delays. The first was about 30 minutes, the second about an hour. There was a third delay in the second half for another 30 minutes.<\/p>\n
LEC literally weathered the storm, and did what was needed to grind out a victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest thing I\u2019ll say is in any type of situation, good teams find a way,\u201d said Price. \u201cWith the wet and rainy conditions, we knew we had to run the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mission accomplished.<\/p>\n
Price put the game in the hands of his top two running backs, and they responded. Julian Means-Flewellen led the way with 124 yards on 23 carries, and teammate Hakeem Quran added 78 yards on 13 totes and a touchdown.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was tough to throw the ball,\u201d said Price. \u201cIt was a grind, a war of attrition. We kept talking about toughness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even with the difficult conditions, Wheeling (1-1) scored on its opening drive when Landon Lutz threw a 23-yard touchdown to Jordan Kaiser, and led, 7-0.<\/p>\n
The Storm answered later in the first quarter on a Hunter Newell-to-Tyleik Maxwell 8-yard TD pass and catch that tied the game at 7-7.<\/p>\n
Then the first delay stopped play, which is something Price has never experienced as a player or coach.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving never been through one of these, my biggest thing was getting the players to turn it on and off,\u201d said Price. \u201cThe first (delay), I don\u2019t think I did a great job. But we got better as the game went on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Josh Valero\u2019s 45-yard field goal was the only score of the second quarter, and the Storm took a 10-7 lead into halftime.<\/p>\n
At the start of the second half, kick returner Curtis Thomas of Eastlake North made a huge play, as he took the half\u2019s opening kickoff 100 yards to the house for a TD that gave the visitors a 17-7 advantage.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat a big play,\u201d said Price. \u201cCurtis is one of the fastest players in the area, and that was really big for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the 10-point lead, LEC kept running the ball and controlling the clock. QB Hunter Newell only attempted 13 passes and completed nine for 67 yards.<\/p>\n
Quran\u2019s 1-yard TD run later in the third pushed the Storm\u2019s lead to 23-7.<\/p>\n
Last season, the LEC defense allowed more than 30 points per game but through two games, the unit has given up just two TDs.<\/p>\n
Jason Hewlett and Quinterrius Jemison each had a team-high seven tackles. Jemison also had four tackles for loss and two sacks. Anthony Anderson also had an interception.<\/p>\n
With their nonconference schedule complete, the Storm opens Great Midwest Athletic Conference play Sept. 19 at Walsh University in North Canton. Kickoff is 7 p.m.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Being 2-0) is huge, and we talk about momentum,\u201d said Price. \u201cIt feels good to be successful in last two games but now our focus shifts to the GMAC. We\u2019re happy to be in this position, but we don\u2019t believe it\u2019s enough.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 2-0 start has happened often for the Lake Erie Football team \u2014 only once in program history…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[2300,136,138,137,6608,241,726],"class_list":["post-284970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-college-sports","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-lake-erie-college","tag-latest-headlines","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284970","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=284970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}