Lakewood’s passing game taking flight

HEBRON - A look at Jason Lee’s credentials, and Tristan Warthman knew he and his Lakewood teammates would be in good hands.

The Lancers are off to a difficult start in the win-loss column, but Lee has brought years of experience being a part of high-powered offenses. The Lancers appear to just be revving up.

“We all knew who (Lee) was when he came in here and what his background was. We were excited,” said Warthman, a senior receiver. “We weren’t really that worried when (former coach Craig Conley) left once we met Coach Lee and saw how intense he was.”

Warthman primarily was a contributor in the Lakewood secondary in 2016 in his first season after transferring from Utica. This season, however, he has emerged as the leading receiver in Licking County, building a rapport with sophomore quarterback Connor Vierstra.

Vierstra has thrown for more than 700 yards with almost half of those being compiled on passes to Warthman.

“Stats are nice to talk about after the season’s over, but if you have a zero in the win column, then they don’t really mean much,” Warthman said.

Among Lee’s coaching stops are Granville and most recently Zanesville, where diverse offenses helped the Blue Devils to the state semifinals twice in the past five seasons.

With Josh Yost and Zaven Boland joining Warthman on the outside, picking up yardage through the air has not been Lakewood’s problem.

The passing game has been needed because the running game has not yet gotten on track because of injuries in the backfield and on the offensive line.

“Connor Vierstra is a really heady kid, who is coming into his own, and I see a lot of good things he’s doing and how that can help the team,” Lee said. “Tristan Warthman, we have to get him the ball. He’s a playmaker.”

Lakewood’s biggest challenge has been sustaining momentum.

In Week 1, Vierstra threw the tying touchdown pass to Yost with less than four minutes left in the fourth quarter. Amanda-Clearcreek, however, immediately answered with a long kickoff return to set up the game-winning field goal.

In Week 3, Lakewood’s defense had a goal-line stand. The offense, however, could not dig out of the hole, and Bloom-Carroll took advantage of a short field to score the first points of the game.

This past week, Vierstra’s touchdown pass to Boland cut the deficit against Northridge to 10-7 early in the fourth quarter. The Vikings returned the kickoff for a score and the Lancers could not recover.

“We have signs and glimpses of elite play, but our margin of error is (small) right now,” Lee said. “When two or three guys aren’t doing their job, that exposes us to much more of a negative situation. We are really trying to get everybody consistently doing their jobs.”

Heath visits on Friday as each team will be looking for its first victory. The teams are mirror images this season as the Bulldogs also have struggled to run the ball, relying heavily on quarterback Tyler Karr.

“I still think that we are just as good as I thought we were before the season started,” Warthman said. “We haven’t played the best that we could have, but I still have the same amount of faith and trust in these guys.”

ksnyder@newarkadvocate.com

740-328-8556

Twitter: @newarkurt

Aug. 25: Amanda 10, Lakewood 7

Sept. 1: Bishop Ready 49, Lakewood 13

Sept. 8: Bloom-Carroll 36, Lakewood 14

Sept. 15: Northridge 17, Lakewood 7

Sept. 22: Heath, 7 p.m.

Sept. 29: @Licking Valley, 7 p.m.

Oct. 6: Licking Heights, 7 p.m.

Oct. 13: @Granville, 7 p.m.

Oct. 20: Watkins Memorial, 7 p.m.

Oct. 27: @Utica, 7 p.m.