Lake County Sentinel
South Rebels dominate rival North Rangers 33-13
BY JOEY SCHNEIDER
STAFF
(WILLOUGHBY, OH) - The (4-3) Rebels of Willoughby South took on the (3-4) Eastlake North Rangers at Harry E. Winters Stadium in Willoughby on Thursday night in the "Battle of the Border." A rivalry in Northeast Ohio that that one could say is the biggest in the area next to the "Holy War" between St. Ignatius and St. Edwards. The rivalry as it stood prior to the game was 34-29-1 in favor of the Rebels, who also have won 18 of their last 20 meetings against the Rangers.
The Rebels added one more win in their column as they soundly defeated the Rangers 33-13 on the backs of running back Jayden Hardy, quarterback Luke Jensen, and a tough offensive and defensive front, including starters Brayden Kinney and Aiden Ernst, who battled his way back from an ACL injury onto the field.
The Rangers started with the ball and almost ran out the clock in the first quarter scoring on the opening drive on a two-yard run by Ranger's Josh Fennick, with just 42 seconds left in the first quarter. It was quite an impressive drive, but it would be North's only score until Brayden Sandstrom scored with just 56 seconds left in the game. The night belonged to the Rebels.
After the impressive opening drive by the Rangers, South would respond with a 1-yard touchdown of their own by Jayden Hardy, his first of three rushing scores for the Rebels. Hardy also scored on runs of 30 yards and 61 yards. He finished with 24 carries for 178 yards and three touchdowns. After the game Hardy was asked if having a game like this against your rival is something he dreams about. "Absolutely. It's my senior year. I have to go out with a bang. Nothing less. I had to perform good today and that was it." He was asked about his offensive lineman opening up holes for him to run through and with a huge smile he ran and tried to grab lineman saying "I'm nothing without my offensive line." he grabbed Brayden Kinney who yelled in happiness "I wouldn't want to block for any other quarterback or any other running back ever."
South's junior quarterback Luke Jensen has continued to impress this season being extremely composed and making accurate throws all over the field to an impressive group of wide receivers, including younger brother Josh Jensen. "I give a ton of credit to the O-Line they are putting in the work in the trenches, a ton of credit to my running backs for setting me up, and a lot of credit to the wide receivers for getting open." Luke Jensen finished the game going 9/12 with a TD and an interception.
Pregame both head coaches Matt Duffy for Willoughby South and Shawn Dodd for Eastlake North echoed many of the same themes about how the teams respect each other, but for 48 minutes it's going to be a dog fight. "That's a good team, we know what we have to do, the kids are ready to give it their all." said Shawn Dodd, who is also immensely respected by all the South players as he is a beloved teacher at Willoughby Middle School.
Matt Duffy after the game said "You have to give them credit to start the first half, they were ready to go, but I think the kids were fired up a little bit like everyone else. It's the North/South game, it's a big game for everybody. So once we got settled in, we got the offense going and the defense settled in and I'm real proud of the way we played the rest of the way."
North played tough doing everything they could to stop the Rebels, but South would not be denied another win the 65th game of the "Battle of the Border".
Willoughby South improved to 5-3 on the year and will be at home again next week hosting a very tough Chardon Hilltoppers team, while the Eastlake North Rangers drop to 3-5 and will also play host next week to the 5-2 Riverside Beavers. Both games are on Friday, October 17th, with 7:00 pm start times.
POSTED 10/09/2025 23:13
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Willoughby South Rebels sophomore quarterback Luke Jensen drops back to pass in the Rebels 33-13 win over Eastlake North on Thursday night. Photo by Tim Shirer
