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Comets extend regular season win streak
(by Tony Lange - August 31, 2011)
Comets extend regular season win streak
By TONY LANGE
Solon's football team extended it regular season win streak to 21 last Saturday as the Comets beat the Red Raiders 34-13 in Shaker Heights.
"One and nine, is that our goal for the season?" head coach Jim McQuaide asked the Comets during the postgame huddle.
"No," the Comets said.
"We still have got a ways to go," McQuaide said. "It's a long season. Take care of each other."
After forcing the Raiders to go three-and-out to open the game, it didn't take long for the Comets to put points on the board.
In three plays, junior running back Khoury Crenshaw tallied an 11-yard reception, a nine-yard rush and 40-yard touchdown run during the Comets' opening offensive series.
"It was kind of easy," Crenshaw said of the opening drive, which lasted 53 seconds. "I really wasn't expecting it. Usually we run that play in practice and my coach tells me to take one cut and go and that was all I was thinking."
With experience on the defensive line, the Comets were able to hold the Raiders to two first downs and zero points in the first half. Nathan-el Hoff, a four-year starter at tackle, was a part of that effort.
"It's a weird feeling getting back on the field for my senior year, but I love it," Hoff said. "We had a really good time today, but we could have done a lot better I thought. We need to come back next week and be much improved, for sure."
Although the Comets scored 34 unanswered points in the first three quarters before giving up 13 points in the fourth, there was a lot of sloppiness in the second half, McQuaide said.
"There's no doubt about it," he said. "Sometimes things came a little easy there at the beginning and then we scored on the kick return and then we got a big turnover and we need to just work on being more consistent with our effort for an entire game."
Before the Comets got complacent, Crenshaw scored his second touchdown of the day during the second quarter on a 66-yard run when the 10.8-second, 100-meter dash track runner transferred his speed from the track to the field.
"When I get into open space, I just run my fastest, my hardest like I do in track when I think no one's catching me," he said.
That put the Comets up 17-0 at halftime.
To open the third quarter, Darian Hicks extended that lead for the Comets with a 94-yard kickoff return for a touchdown.
"I got the ball and then I ran over to the sideline and I saw my blockers get me a big hole, so I went through it and I went to the sideline and just kept running," Hicks said.
During the Raiders' ensuing offensive possession, Ryan Schwenke intercepted a pass for the Comets and ran it down to the 2-yard line. Crenshaw quickly made it a 31-0 game with his third touchdown of the game.
Also in the third quarter, Anthony Restifo, the Comet's backup kicker, booted a 37-yard field goal through the uprights. All-League kicker Alex Knight tweaked his leg in practice and could not play, McQuaide said.
"If you have a good team, you have guys who will step up and fill in," McQuaide said. "Restifo did that for us."
The rest of the game for the Comets was defined by interceptions, sacks, bad snaps, flags, a blocked punt.
"We expect them to play as well as they did the first half for the entire game," McQuaide said. "We just have to be more consistent with our effort."
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