Hawks get cleaned up in blowout win over Cardinal

ELDON — The emphasis for Central Lee’s football team during practice this week was clear after last week’s season-opening win over Van Buren County.
“It was just about doing our jobs,” coach Doug Dodds said. “There were just some little things wrong last week that we couldn’t maintain this week.”
The 47-0 win over Cardinal on Friday night was all about jobs well done.
The Hawks (2-0) cleaned up some of their issues from last week’s 13-8 win with a dominating performance that started right away.
Central Lee led 40-0 at halftime, with the final 7:01 of the first half and the entire second half played under a running clock because of the IHSAA’s 35-point mercy rule.
“It was pretty big,” senior Kayden Calfee said of the win. “Our defense gets a shutout — we had a good defensive performance last week but this one was even better. Our offense picked it up and just didn’t let up. It was a good win.”
The Hawks made it clear early they would be in command. Brett Cook intercepted Cardinal quarterback Bode Ferrell on the opening possession, and on Central Lee’s first offensive play Calfee ran 57 yards for a touchdown, one of the four touchdowns he was a part of in the game..
“We got all the momentum, and we kept rolling from there,” Calfee said.
The play was similar to the touchdown Calfee had last week.
“They were diving on the play, trying to stop (fullback) Chase (Johnson),” Calfee said. “So I just pulled the ball back and took off, and saw green grass.”
Calfee then threw an 18-yard touchdown pass to Kegan Damico on Central Lee’s next possession, followed by a 16-yard touchdown pass to Max Jones later in the quarter.
Johnson had touchdown runs of 11 and six yards in the second quarter, then Calfee closed the first-half scoring with an 11-yard touchdown run.
Calfee had 89 rushing yards and 45 passing yards.
“Kayden is a great kid,” Dodds said. “He’s special. He's just a good person. We really love having him. And I think the kids always just feed off his energy. I mean, he's calm, cool and collected, and he always just puts us in great positions to be successful.
“I think he does a really good job reading the D-line. Since he was a sophomore, and we started this journey with what we're doing, he has always wanted to be the guy. He wanted to be the man. And when he gets a chance, he's wanting the ball. He wants the ball so and that's good for him, that's what you want for a quarterback.”
The Hawks had 313 yards of offense. Johnson and Damico each had 58 rushing yards. Jones had two catches for 26 yards.
Central Lee’s defense held Cardinal (0-2) to just one yard of offense in the game. The Comets’ lone first down came on a penalty, and the Hawks had three interceptions, two by Brayden Wyrick.
“We did what we needed to do,” Dodds said. “We controlled the line of scrimmage, we won the turnover battle.”
Central Lee plays host to Durant next Friday to close non-district play.