9/11/05

By KEITH KANE, Staff Writer

PLATTSBURGH — The Lake City Stars showed a little rust in the first half after their two-week layoff.

The second half, however, the Stars were hitting on all cylinders.

Brandon Kelleher rushed for 82 yards on 11 carries and scored a pair of touchdowns as Lake City cruised to a 23-0 victory over the Ottawa Deacon Demons at Melissa L. Penfield Park on Saturday before 1,000 fans.

"We took the first drive and ran the ball very well," Lake City head coach Ed McCallister said of the first-half effort. "We did what we wanted to do.

"We tried to do some things different and we really didn’t have the ball much in the first half."

After a slow first half in which the only points scored was a 25-yard field goal by Ryan DeCamp on the Stars first possession of the game, Lake City stepped it up with a key start to the second half.

DeCamp lined up for the opening second-half kickoff and tapped the ball 10-yards to himself to recover the onside kick. From there the Stars offense was unstoppable.

"DeCamp and I talked about the onside kick at half-time," McCallister said. "He went out and executed it to perfection and it proved to be a tone setter for the second-half.

"We almost played a perfect second-half of football."

On that possession, the Stars had two 25-yard runs, one by Kelleher and the other by Kyle Nolan, to set-up an 11 yard touchdown pass from Eddie Castine to Matt St. Clair.

Kelleher then scored on the Stars next two possessions. The first a one yard rush on fourth down and the second an 11-yard scamper. DeCamp nailed both point after attempts for a 23-0 score.

The Lake City defense again shined as they held the Deacon Demons out of the end-zone for their first shutout of the season.

Don Staley (-7) and Ronnie Foster (-5) each picked up a sack against Ottawa quarterback Scott Boxall. Kellen Nolan setup Kelleher’s first touchdown run with an interception.

"Staley did a great job on defense for us today," McCallister said. "He got after it in a big way.

"We made a few mistakes on defense with some run blitzes that Ottawa just had the right play called at the right time. Overall the defense did a great job."

The Stars had a balanced rushing attack as they finished with 198 yards and two touchdowns. Nine different players finished the game with at least one carry. Heath Geiser picked up 49 yards on seven carries while Kyle Nolan added 42 on four.

Eddie Castine only aired it out six times in the contest, completing two for 16 yards and a score.

The Deacon Demons were led by Shawn Harkes on offense with 62 yards rushing on 18 carries. Boxall completed 5-of-14 passes for 82 yards and an interception. Rani Thoba had three receptions for 70 yards.

"We got a lot of people to play in the game tonight, which is very nice," McCallister said.

"Tonight we climbed the first rung of the ladder and now we have a very tough Watertown team in Watertown. The good new is we didn’t give something on the way there.

"I’m really looking forward to going to Watertown; it’ll be fun."