BY YANEEK SMITH, BEACON CONTRIBUTOR

SANDUSKY — St. Mary Central Catholic forced a touchdown on the game’s first play, and its defense held Danbury in check for a 16-6 win over the Lakers.

Following the Danbury fumble on the opening kickoff, Ayden Kresser scored on a 3-yard touchdown run. Jaxon Mashari caught a pass from Kresser on the two-point conversion to make it 8-0.

Danbury had a chance to score before halftime, but Mason Kolycheck sacked Jacob Mischler and took the Lakers (1-3) out of field goal range.

The Panthers (2-3) scored on a 54-yard run by Kresser and pushed the lead to 16-0 on the two-point conversion when Kresser connected with Parker Kasper.

“We couldn’t get the run going, so it’s not entirely who we want to be with the passing game. It was a tough night, we couldn’t complement our ability to pass the ball with the running game,” said Danbury coach Keith Mora. “We were driving downfield with two minutes left in the first half. We had a bad snap, and that caused us to stall out. We were setting up a screen play, we had moved the ball probably 40 yards.

“They were in a double-tight formation, they want to run the ball, and that’s what they did. Our defense kept us in the game. We were always just one score down until the fourth quarter. It was a constant reminder that we were still in this game. Our defense played a great game overall. There are things we want to fix,” said Mora.

The Lakers were held 197 yards of total offense. The lone Danbury touchdown came on a 41-yard pass from Mischler to Cade McCarthy. Despite the loss, the Lakers can still win their conference.

“All of the goals that we set are still there for us. There is no league standing at this point, everything that we’ve been working at is still achievable,” said Mora. “We were on the field almost the entire night, and we gave up 16 points. We’ve gotta get back to practice. We’ve got to get some of these issues fixed.”