LUCAS — When Lucas football coach Jim Sweat looked at the 2026 schedule and saw the gauntlet that is the Northern 10 Conference, he knew he had some work to do to prepare his team to compete against some very good squads.
So, he used the two-week nonconference schedule to do some different things offensively that had Lucas faithful scratching their heads after watching more than a decade of the Cubs running an offense known as RPO (Run People Over).
But in a 34-14 Week 5 N10 victory over Tiffin Calvert, the Cubs got back to their bread and butter and ran all over the Senecas to the tune of 346 yards rushing — needing two pass attempts. After throwing the ball more than they have in recent years in Weeks 1 and 2, the Cubs reverted to what built one of the most dominant small-school programs in the state.
“We are still going to need what we were working on, especially against the top teams we are going to have to play down the road,” Sweat said. “We have to be able to throw the football against those elite teams. We have to be balanced and throw the ball when we need and want to throw the ball.”
Senior Brady Guegold ran for 210 yards and two touchdowns on 17 carries while Cooper Day added 64 yards on the ground, Anthony Fanello had 29 yards and a score, Brady Anschutz ran for 22 yards and Carter Cox added 21 yards and a TD to go with his 10-yard touchdown pass to Anschutz.
“We got back to the bread and butter a little bit more and it has paid dividends,” Sweat said. “That is a credit to the kids because they work hard and did what we asked of them and adjusted well. They brought the physicality tonight.”
After a scoreless first quarter, Guegold got the Cups on the board with a 40-yard touchdown run before Fanello made it 13-0 with a 3-yard score. Calvert responded with a scoring drive with 2:02 left to make it 13-7, but a Joey Desterhaft 50-yard kickoff return set the Cubs up with an opportunity to put points on the board before the end of the half and Cox hit Anschutz on a 10-yard corner fade to the back of the end zone. Cox added a one-yard TD run and Guegold scored from three yards out to ice the victory.
“It felt good,” Guegold said. “It works well for us when we can pound the ball down their throats. We were all really excited to see that the gameplan was to get back to running the ball because that is what we know and what we grew up doing.”
Defensively, the Cubs held Calvert (0-5, 0-3) to 347 yards of total offense, 158 passing and 189 rushing, and just 14 points and kept Calvert’s mobile quarterback, Niko Marinis, in check for the most part. It was a huge emphasis coming into the week.
“We were really focused on containing their quarterback because we struggled with that over the past four weeks,” Guegold said. “We are getting that down and did a much better job of it tonight.”
When the Senecas did connect on a pass or Marinis got loose, the Lucas secondary stepped up in a big way.
“They took a big stride forward this week,” Sweat said. “We made our open-field tackling a point of emphasis this week and ran drill after drill and it all paid off.”
Lucas (3-2, 2-1) isn’t used to playing meaningful games in Week 5 of football season after spending more than a decade as an independent and just using the 10-week schedule to prepare for the playoffs. They are enjoying their time in a new league and will travel to Colonel Crawford in Week 6 to continue N10 play.
“It feels like week-to-week, games are more competitive and mean something,” Guegold said. “We look at every week as a must-win because every game matters in the conference race.”
Sweat sees the addition to the N10 as just the beginning of great Friday nights at Bob Wine Field.
“I don’t know if it has all completely settled in yet, because we don’t have built-in rivalries just yet,” Sweat said. “A lot of the teams we play this year is the first time ever or the first time in a really long time. It was extra special for our seniors tonight because two years ago, we went to Tiffin Calvert and they put it on us and dominated us up front. Our offensive and defensive lines were really good tonight and a key reason why we won.”
This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Lucas gets back to bread and butter, run over Calvert for N10 win
