Hoover football’s run game ‘starting to click’ as Vikings roll past GlenOak Golden Eagles

Cliff Hickman, Canton Repository

PLAIN TWP. —  Over the past several years, the Hoover football team has built a reputation as one of the most prolific passing teams in the area. That has changed out of necessity after the graduation of Connor Ashby and a leg injury to Cade Henne. 

Over the course of the past several weeks, the Vikings have transitioned to a run-heavy offense. Hoover showed off its comfort with its new identity Friday night in a 35-0 victory on the road over GlenOak in Federal League play.

The Vikings ran for five touchdowns and piled up 302 yards rushing along the way.

“The offensive line gave a full effort tonight,” Hoover head coach Brian Baum said. “They did a really nice job for us of controlling the point of attack.”

It’s a style of football that is suiting the Hoover offensive line just fine.

“I’ve enjoyed the transition to more of a run scheme,” senior left tackle Alec Lehman said. “It gives us a little extra motivation as lineman when we know we have a run play called. I’m all for doing whatever gives us the best chance to win but for our position, it is so much more fun to be on the attack.”

It shows. No matter who the running back was, the Vikings seemed to move forward in big chunks of yards. The philosophy led to rushing touchdowns by four different Vikings. 

“It’s starting to click,” Lehman said. “I think it’s going to start getting a little bit scary to line up against us. We have been working our butts off in practice and we have a chip on our shoulder. We’re doing well but we aren’t satisfied. We want to keep improving.”

“It feels like things are ramping up for us,” Baxter said. “I feel like the offense is starting to spark for us. Our line battled hard for us tonight and this was a satisfying victory. We want to keep that momentum going because we have some big games coming up.”

Baxter ran for 30 yards on five carries. Luke Roach led the Vikings with 106 yards on 17 carries. 

Dyrlund ran for 86 yards on 12 carries and had no turnovers. A sophomore pressed into service, Dyrlund has grown into his role as the starting quarterback.

“He’s doing a really good job for us,” Baum said. “I thought he did a great job of running the ball for us and protecting the ball. He didn’t take any negative plays. The fact we didn’t have any turnovers tonight was huge.”

The Hoover defense continued to fire on all cylinders. This was the second straight shutout by the Vikings. The defensive line, led by seniors Drew Logan and Mike Shimek, limited GlenOak to 80 yards of total offense. Logan recovered a fumble that gave the Vikings a short field and led to a Hoover touchdown.

The Hoover special teams unit also came up big. Hoover did not allow GlenOak to get a punt off in the shadow of its own end zone in the second half. That set the offense up on the GlenOak 1-yard line and the Vikings quickly scored a TD. 

“That’s a unit that has been strong for us all season,” Baum said. “They get overlooked sometimes but they came up with some big plays for us.”

HOOVER 35, GLENOAK 0 

Hoover – 7 – 14 – 14 – 0 — 35 

GlenOak – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 — 0 

First quarter 

H-Roach 3 run (Smart kick), 3:23 

Second quarter 

H-Dyrlund 3 run (Smart kick). 8:07 

H-Dyrlund 1 run (Smart kick), :15 

Third quarter 

H-Griguolo 1 run (Smart kick), 10:01 

H-Baxter 10 run (Smart kick), 2:13 

TEAM STATS 

                     HOO     —     GO 

First downs:  17   —     3 

Rushes-Yds: 48-302     —     22-75 

Passing Yds: 7     —     5 

Comp-Att-Int: 3-5-0     —     2-5-0 

Punts-Avg.:  2-70     —     5-183 

Fumbles-Lost: 0-0     —     2-1 

Penalties-Yds: 4-25     —     5-35 

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS 

PASSING—Hoover, Dyrlund 3-5-7-0. GlenOak, Knox 2-5-5-0. 

RUSHING—Hoover, Roach 17-106 Dyrlund 12-86, Bugara 3-67, Baxter 5-23, Reisinger 3-22, Griguolo 3-7, Ashby 1-5, Logan 1-1, Smart 2-(minus 5), Kavanagh 1-(minus 10).  GlenOak, Burt 13-56, McNeilm 3-7, Potter 2-7, Scott 1-4, Knox 2-1, TEAM 1-0. 

RECEIVING—Hoover, Bugara 1-6, Roach 1-1, Reed 1-0. GlenOak, McNeilm 1-10, Burt 1-(minus 5). 

Records: Hoover 3-2, 1-0; GlenOak 1-3, 0-2.