For three quarters Lakewood looked ready to pull off an upset of the Strongsville Mustangs. Unfortunately, football games are four quarters.

The Mustangs scored 21 fourth quarter points to pull away for a 38-10 Northeast Ohio Conference Valley Division victory on Oct. 5 at Pat Catan Stadium. Eric Stoyanoff, one of the area’s leading running backs, ran for 223 yards on 23 carries and drove a dagger in the Rangers upset hopes with second-half touchdown runs of 54 and 25 yards.

The Rangers turned the ball over on their first two possessions but Strongsville failed to capitalize, missing on field goal attempts of 38 and 51 yards. The Mustang's first score came with 11:09 remaining in the first half when running back Jovon Anderson caught a Tim Kamczyc screen pass and ran untouched into the end zone from 14 yards out. Nate Freese’s extra point made the score 7-0. Kamczyc finished the night 14 of 23 passing for 149 yards and two touchdowns.

Lakewood answered right back with an impressive 14-play, 77-yard drive that used over eight minutes of the second-quarter clock and resulted in a 20-yard Ardjan Bako field goal to make the score 7-3. Strongsville's Freese added a 25-yard field goal of his own to as the half expired to make the score 10-3.

“We played hard again tonight,” Lakewood coach Jim Slagle said. “Our guys are playing well but at this time of year you have a lot of guys nicked up and injured.”

Those nagging injuries forced Lakewood to go with a three-pronged running attack against the Mustangs. Robert Trivett was limited to just 25 yards on 12 carries. Junior Devin Ross scampered for 76 yards on just five carries but fumbled twice. Fullback Joe Young had 8 carries for 52 yards replacing an injured Mike Harrington.

The Rangers closed the score to 17-10 late in the third quarter when Ross ran a reverse for a 17-yard touchdown to cap off an 11-play, 77-yard that was aided when the Mustangs jumped offsides on a fourth down play, giving Lakewood a first down.

“These kids have done everything we have asked of them all season but we have to keep working hard and keep getting better,” said Slagle.

That hard work will be tested Friday when the Brunswick Blue Devils make their first NOC appearance at Lakewood Stadium. As of this writing the Blue Devils are the top-ranked team in both the Plain Dealer and Fox-8 News polls.

With the win Strongsville improved to 5-2 (2-0 in NOC) while the Rangers fell to 3-4 (0-2 in NOC).