Shotts, Meadows top 100-yard mark, help Rochester take down Lakeland, reach sectional semis

Val T.

1 minute ago

6 min read

Chapman, Holloway add TD runs; Spence: TD catch, interception

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Left: Trenton Meadows with a big run around the right side. Meadows ran for 135 yards in Rochester's quarter final win over Lakeland Friday night

Middle: Rochester's Kale Shotts and Grant Holloway tackle Lakeland's Bryar Alleshouse for no gain. Shotts also let the Zebras with 177 rushing yards on Friday.

Right: Rochester's Grant Holloway has running room, Holloway would tally 53 yards rushing and a touchdown in Friday's victory over Lakeland.

Photos Courtesy of: Jabez Yarber

In preparing for their Class 2A, Sectional 34 quarterfinal at Barnhart Field Friday, Rochester football coach Isaac Shaffer saw that Lakeland played their cornerbacks and safeties tight to the line of scrimmage.

As a result, he thought his running backs had chances for long runs.

Kale Shotts turned his wishes into existence, and the rest was a hard-driving reality: The shiftier, more physical Zebras were the better team.

Shotts ran for 177 yards and two touchdowns, and Trenton Meadows ran for 135 yards as Rochester beat Lakeland 36-14.

Rochester ran for 374 yards as a team, and Mitchell Clark added 63 yards passing, all in the first half, as the Zebras built a 28-0 lead.

Grant Holloway added 53 yards and a touchdown, including a 6-yard touchdown run with 1:35 left for the only Zebra touchdown of the second half. Alex Chapman also ran for a score.

Liam Spence had two receptions for 31 yards and a touchdown, and he also had an interception on defense that quashed a Laker drive in the final minute of the third quarter.

Senior running back Bryar Alleshouse ran eight times for 96 yards and scored all 14 Lakeland points on two touchdowns and a two-point conversion.

The second touchdown and the two-point conversion came with 32.8 seconds left and with some Rochester backups in the game.

Rochester improved to 5-5 and earned a semifinal meeting at Central Noble next Friday. The Cougars eliminated Manchester 40-21 in their quarterfinal.

Lakeland finished 2-8.

Shotts might have dictated the game on the third play from scrimmage when he angled left and cut back to the middle past overpursuing linebacker Quentin Kjendalen. There was no safety behind Kjendalen, and Shotts had open pasture for a 67-yard touchdown.

“We weren’t sure, but they ended up showing us that safeties-at-six-yards (look), and all it takes is one broken tackle, and you’re off to the races,” Shaffer said. “So great job by Kale and all the other backs – Trenton and Grant Holloway tonight. Just running the ball hard, and then the linemen just opening up holes for them. A really good job.”

After a 13-play Lakeland drive ended with them turning the ball over on downs on the Rochester 16, Rochester went on a seven-play, 84-yard scoring drive.

In a three-play span, Meadows had a 21-yard reception and a 53-yard run that took the ball down to the Lakeland 5. Two plays later, Chapman relied on blocks from Ethan Bailey and Mason Oliver to score on a 4-yard jet sweep to the right.

Shotts added a two-point conversion run to make it 14-0.

Bailey, who also had a 10-yard bull rush sack of Lakeland quarterback Brady West in the first quarter, is getting his first action as an offensive lineman this season after playing defense only his previous two seasons on the varsity.

“It’s really great actually,” Bailey said of his new experience as an offensive lineman. “I was kind of nervous. I had never played before, and I feel like I’m doing really well, probably top of the linemen right now.”

After a Lakeland three-and-out, Rochester went on another 80-yard touchdown drive. Shotts converted a third-and-1 with a 17-yard run, and Holloway ran for 7 yards on third-and-3.

And then again it was Shotts, who saw an alley that left guard Trevor Coplen helped create and ran through it untouched for a 40-yard touchdown.

“Number 33 (Shotts) just was so difficult to bring down,” Lakeland coach Tom Wogomon said. “There were so many times you could see initial contact and then a trail of Lakers where he started from because we just couldn’t bring him to the ground. I just told one of my coaches that kid runs so physical – pad-forward, downhill – and fits into what Rocehster does with their offense.

“We got pushed around in the first half. By all intents and purposes, this game was done after 24 minutes. We challenged our kids to forget the first 24 and just play a good 24 the second half, and our kids did respond to it, but Rochester is a good football team.”

A 24-yard run from Kayden Miller gave Lakeland a first down at the Rochester 30 on their next drive, but that drive would end with three straight West incompletions and Rochester taking over on downs on their own 28.

An 11-yard screen pass from Clark to Aiden Wilson gave the Zebras one first down, and an 11-yard run from Meadows got the ball to midfield. Holloway dragged defenders for 8 yards, and Shotts gained 6 and got a first down.

Three plays later, on third-and-3 from the 29, Shaffer called for a play-action pass. Clark faked a handoff to Holloway, which froze the defense. Miller, who was covering Spence, snuck a peek into the backfield. Spence went straight to the end zone on his pattern and got open, and Clark hit him in stride along the right sideline as he got a foot inbounds for a touchdown.

Shotts added a two-point conversion run to make it 28-0.

“I probably threw the ball more than I should’ve,” Shaffer said. “I was kind of looking for the kill shot, but we had it with the run game. So that’s just something that I have to learn. The guys did a great job of executing.”

Alleshouse sped past the Rochester defense for a 69-yard touchdown just 58 seconds into the second half to shrink the lead to 28-6, but Lakeland’s next two possessions ended in turnovers. One was a botched handoff that resulted in a fumble that Wilson recovered.

The next possession resulted in Spence’s interception.

After a Chapman punt, Lakeland drove to midfield, but that drive ended with a Shotts sack of West on fourth down.

“We talked about that their backs wanted to run more outside,” Shaffer said. “Grant was pushing up at the outside backer position to make them run around him. (On the 69-yard touchdown run), they cut it inside, and we just need our backers to flow a little bit harder to that, so we just made an adjustment again, and we did pretty well from there. Defense did a good job of staying together in a bend-don’t-break attitude. I think they got inside the 30 to 20-yard line quite a few times on their drives, and guys just buckled down and kept playing.”

Lakeland would force a red zone turnover when Aiden Doty sacked Clark and forced a fumble that Kaleb Weimer recovered on the Lakeland 13.

Three plays later, Rochester got the ball back on a mesh point mishap between West and Alleshouse. It led to a fumble that Bailey recovered on the Lakeland 23.

Holloway scored five plays later on a counter, and Clark added a two-point conversion on a quarterback sneak to make it 36-6.

“It’s really strong,” Bailey said of the bond between the seniors. “We’ve been playing since middle school together, and we’ve always been close. It’s just great to play with your brothers.”

Photos Courtesy of Jabez Yarber (Jabez pulled double duty on Friday with great shots from the Caston vs Madison Grant game and the Rochester vs Lakeland game!)

Said to be “game-time decisions” leading into the game with ankle injuries, juniors Derek Wortley and Owen Lett both started.

Rochester 36, Lakeland 14

Lakeland 0 0 6 8 – 14

Rochester 14 14 0 8 – 36

First quarter

RHS – Kale Shotts 67 run (pass failed)

RHS – Alex Chapman 4 run (Shotts run)

Second quarter

RHS – Shotts 40 run (Shotts run)

RHS – Liam Spence 29 pass from Mitchell Clark (Shotts run)

Third quarter

LL – Bryar Alleshouse 69 run (run failed)