Bellevue boys ride strong defense to SBC Lake win

BELLEVUE — Bellevue knew what it wanted to do defensively. Knowing what you want to do and actually doing it are two different things. Except, the Redmen were able to. Bellevue limited Norwalk to one point in the final 17 minutes of the game, topping the Truckers 63-15 in Sandusky Bay Conference Lake Division action Friday. "We challenged our guys tonight," Redmen coach Ed Rich said. "Our goal was to hold them under 30 points and we talked about that all week. We did that. Our defense was pretty good. When we started moving our feet and stopped playing with our hands, we were pretty good defensively." Bellevue (8-2, 3-0 SBC Lake) played well early. Sam Bollinger and JJ Vogel hit 3s as the Redmen raced out to a 9-2 lead. After Josh King scored for Norwalk (0-8, 0-3), Bellevue scored the final 14 points of the quarter. Bollinger scored three times in the run. He finished with 22 points, one game after a career-high 29 points in a come-from-behind road win over Eastwood. "He's just playing with a lot more confidence," Rich said. "There was a game where he missed a lot of bunnies. He was pretty down on himself, but saw a couple go through against Eastwood and I think he started feeling a little better. He's a scorer." Bellevue extended the lead to 31-6 in the second quarter, but the Truckers answered with a 7-2 run. That was the best stretch Norwalk put together. After that, Hudson Smith scored twice to give the Redmen a 37-14 advantage at halftime. "We did not make good decision versus their run and trap," Norwalk coach Adam Kreischer said. "We wanted to throw the ball over top. It was lazy passes that they ended up running through and got their hands on. Until we can get stronger with it and bend our knees, that's what is going to happen to us." Bellevue thoroughly dominated the second half. The Redmen scored all 17 points of the third quarter. Many came off of Norwalk turnovers. Bollinger scored twice and Ike Brown tallied one for a 43-14 lead. Reid Claus then made a pair of 3-pointers as Bellevue went up 54-14 after three quarters. "We're honest with our kids," Rich said. "I told them Norwalk had not had a win all year and they knew that. Our kids aren't dumb. I said it was a league game. It doesn't matter. You can get knocked off at any time. We respect them. We respect everybody we play. I don't care if they're 0-for or not. It's Norwalk." Nolan Jones scored the only point of the second half for Norwalk when he split two free throws in the fourth quarter. The Truckers made just 5 of 20 shots. "We have to get better at a lot of things," Kreischer said. "We have to get stronger. We have to get more skill. Could we game plan some stuff and do some things different to stay in games a little longer like it was tonight? Yeah, sure we could. But then our guys aren't going to get any better because they're being forced into decisions." Bellevue forced Norwalk into 28 turnovers. The Truckers had nine turnovers in the first quarter and nine more in the third quarter. "Our gameplan was definitely to get up and pressure them," Rich said. "We saw on film that they're struggling to handle the pressure. We like to pressure. We do it at certain times and not at certain times. Tonight, it was our game plan to get up in them and make them handle the ball. It worked out." Bellevue's schedule gets tough in the coming weeks with games against Perkins, Sandusky, Clyde and Lexington. But first, a trip to Seneca County to take on Hopewell-Loudon (2-3), which has won its last two games following an 0-3 start. The Chieftains were state runners-up in Division VI in the high school football state championships. "They're athletic and they're physical," said Rich of H-L. "They're getting it together. The last couple games, they've played well. I went and watch them against Lakota a couple weeks ago and picked up some things. They're not very deep, but they have guys that play hard." NORWALK (0-8, 0-2) Kingston Gonzales 0 0-0 0, Kian Kreischer 1 0-0 3, Nolan Jones 1 4-6 6, Caiden Schmidt 2 0-1 4, Josh King 1 0-0 2. TOTALS 5 4-7 15 BELLEVUE (8-2, 3-0) Sam Bollinger 9 1-2 22, Ike Brown 1 2-2 4, JJ Vogel 2 0-0 5, Reid Claus 6 0-0 14, Elijah Turinsky 1 1-2 3, Caden Cramer 3 0-1 7, Hudson Smith 2 2-2 6, Caden Lindsey 1 0-0 2. TOTALS 25 6-8 63 Norwalk 4 10 0 1 — 15 Bellevue 23 14 17 9 — 63 Three-point goals: Norwalk 1 (Kreischer); Bellevue 7 (Bollinger 3, Claus 2, Vogel, Cramer)