Though somewhat legendary at Colerain High School, Tom Bolden still hears a smattering of boos when he returns to his alma mater. It hasn't helped that his recent Lakota West team has defeated his former Cardinals three straight times.
After Friday's 21-3 victory over the Cardinals, Lakota West has allowed Colerain only 10 points in their recent trio of meetings. The game was lethargic at times, chippy at others.
"It's a physical game, it's edgy, but that's what you expect when you have this kind of dynamic," Bolden said. "It makes for a great rivalry. It makes for tough, hard-nosed physical football which was what it was. That's a hard-fought battle right there."
Bolden wonders when it won't be awkward to come to his old school.
Because of COVID-19 protocols last year, Lakota West didn't use the Colerain visiting locker room. On this night, it was different for Bolden to be in an unfamiliar area coming down the visiting steps.
"Kind of surreal, kind of weird," he said.
Leading the way was Tom's junior son Mitch Bolden who threw for a score and ran for the touchdown that broke it open. A late touchdown on a bad punt snap was icing on the cake for the Firebirds.
Mitch Bolden finished with 84 yards rushing and a touchdown and was 9-for-17 passing for 103 yards with a score to Trent Lloyd. Lloyd had six receptions for 65 yards.
"It's still strange being on the other sideline," Mitch Bolden said. "I've kind of embraced it. It's something different. I like change. I love Colerain, I love Lakota West. Today was a great battle between two great teams."
Sophomore quarterback Zaccaus (Zae) Jennings led Colerain with 87 rushing yards but was held to 3-for-8 passing for just 17 yards. Colerain outrushed the Firebirds 178 yards to 93 but was penalized 10 times for 101 yards.
"We had too many penalties," Colerain coach Shawn Cutright said. "Too many turnovers. Our kids played hard, we just lost a little bit of our composure there in the second half."
Since leaving his alma mater to take the job at Lakota West, Bolden's teams have defeated the Cardinals 10-0 in the 2020 opener, 23-7 in a Division I regional semifinal and Friday's 18-point triumph.
Colerain's last win over Lakota West came at the end of the 2018 regular season when Bolden was still in Cardinal red.
The first forward pass wasn't thrown until under five minutes in the first quarter. Zae Jennings threw to MJ Flowers for a first down. Eventually, the Cardinals sputtered and had to punt. Colerain was inside the Firebirds' 50 in the first with zero points on the board.
Mitch Bolden zipped a completion at the end of the quarter to make for three pass attempts in the opening frame.
Colerain recovered a fumble early in the second quarter but quickly went backward on penalties. Jennings was then intercepted by Ohio State commit Jyaire Brown, which led to a reliance on the running game for most of the duration.
The Cardinals capitalized on the turnover, albeit on fourth and goal from the 4-yard line when Bolden flipped a score to Lloyd.
Colerain repeatedly had better field position in the first half but was penalized six times taking them out of opportunities.
"Our offense kind of lost their composure," Cutright said.
Alex Jung put Colerain on the scoreboard with a 35-yard field goal, then after a fumbled kickoff, he had a shot to pull the Cardinals within a point, but the kick was blocked. The Firebirds capitalized on the recovery with a long drive ending with Bolden's 7-yard scamper for a double-digit lead.
Colerain had to punt on their next series but when the snap went past Bryce Drake the Firebirds pounced. Tyler Sparnell was credited with the recovery for the score.
On the next series, a long pass intended for Colerain's Ken Willis was wrestled away by Brown for his second interception. It also came with some talking causing several yellow disciplinary flags. The penalty went against the Cardinals after a lengthy discussion and a rendition of the "Jeopardy" theme from the PA booth.
"I don't even know what happened, I just got the pick," Brown said. "He's a good competitor. He did his thing, they did their thing. We just came out with a victory."
Willis was ejected meaning he won't be able to play next weekend.
"It's a testosterone-based game," Cutright said. "Everybody's got there bravado out there. They're going at it as hard as they can. There's always a little chirping, a little talking. That's what makes a rivalry a rivalry."
Cooler heads prevailed the rest of the way with the cooling temperatures as some good old-fashioned clock chewing took place.
Lakota West next hosts neighborhood rival Lakota East at home. Colerain travels to Princeton.
COLERAIN 0 0 3 0 3
LAKOTA WEST 0 7 0 14 21
LW - Bolden 4-yard pass to Lloyd (Duncan kick)
C - Jung 35-yard FG
LW - Bolden 7-yard run (Bohnkick)
LW - punt snap recovered by Tyler Sparnell (Duncan kick)
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