Notebook: Ross finds bright spots in loss to Whitmer

TOLEDO – Fremont Ross got some bad news last week when it found out senior center Evan LeJeune was to miss the next six weeks with injured ligaments in his knee and ankle, essentially ending his season and high school career.

Then the Little Giants got some good news Friday. Ross’ offensive line, despite losing its most experienced blocker, showed resolve and some improvement in its 42-18 loss at Toledo Whitmer.

In LeJeune’s absence, Ross turned to Alijah Fuller to snap the football. Though the Little Giants’ struggled to get a clean snap when LeJeune missed Week 4 at St. John’s, Fuller gave the Little Giants more consistency at center, despite one high snap which led to a third-quarter turnover.

“Fuller did not do a bad job snapping the ball,” Ross coach Craig Yeast said. “He had the one bad snap, and overall the offensive line, there is still a lot of work to be done up front. We’re still missing a lot of stuff and we have to continue to work on that. But, for the most part, they fought hard. They played with effort.”

Yeast was also pleased with his defense. Two of Whitmer’s three offensive touchdowns in the first half came on a short field, including a Panther possession that began at Ross’ 3-yard line. While the Little Giants did give up two long touchdown passes in the second half, beyond those plays, Ross’ defense played fairly well against the Panthers’ offense.

“I thought the defense played well, they played good enough to win,” Yeast said. “Offensively, we still got a long way to go. Even though we only got three games left in the year, we still got a long way to go. We’re still not executing the way we need to up front, but there were some positives tonight.

While Ross (2-5 overall) lost for the fourth time in as many weeks and is winless in the Three Rivers Athletic Conference (0-4), Friday’s loss was more palatable for Yeast because of the manner in which the Little Giants lost.

“It was effort, that’s the only thing I care about,” Yeast said. “Win or lose, just play with unbelievable effort and play for the front of the jersey and stop playing as individuals, and play as a team. I think tonight was the first, and only, night all year we’ve actually done that.

“It was in a losing cause, but I’ll take a loss like this when we play with effort and tonight we played with great effort so I’m proud of them.”

No time for Rockets to savor win

Oak Harbor entered Friday's game as a heavy favorite over winless St. Joseph Central Catholic.

The Rockets (4-3 overall) used a prolific rushing attack to top SJCC 55-6, to set up what some consider Oak Harbor's biggest game in years when they host Sandusky Perkins (6-1) on Friday.

"Our talk right now is we want to be playing week 11 in the playoffs," Oak Harbor coach Mike May said. "We have to get better and we have a tough game (Friday) in Perkins. We can't think about this one too long."

Oak Harbor piled up 267 yards of rushing in the win over SJCC (0-7).

"Our offense moved the ball up and down the field and our defense got some stops," May said. "I thought the offensive line played well and the backs ran hard."

In the Pirates, the Rockets face another big rushing team. Perkins has wins over perennial powerhouses Bellevue and Clyde and averages more than 200 rushing yards per game.

— Correspondent Josh Morgret contributed to this report