It took a quarter to gain traction, but once the Northwest High School offense got rolling it turned into a steamroller against Mehlville in Cedar Hill on Sept. 4.
Mehlville found success in its passing game in the first half as quarterback Cameron Troutman fired three touchdown passes to wide receiver Jordan Hannam-Lewis. But Lions junior QB Cohenn Stark paved the way for his team to start 2-0 this season when he scored three of his four TDs in the third quarter as Northwest turned the Suburban Conference Orange pool game into a rout with a 62-24 victory over Mehlville (0-2, 0-1). It’s the most points scored by the Lions since they had 64 against Riverview Gardens in 2019.
Behind an ever-improving offensive line of tackles Hunter Williams and Cameron Hageman, guards Drew Kavanaugh and Elijah Treece, and center Evan English, Stark rushed for a team-high 186 of the Lions 403 yards and completed 10-of-13 passes for 140 yards.
“The main thing is us building chemistry with each other,” said Stark, an all-state wrestler and track and field athlete. “We all trust each other because we know what each other is capable of.
“Going into halftime we were up by two possessions, and we felt like we were losing because we hold ourselves to higher expectations.”
Stark said it seemed like the offense was gaining 10 to 15 yards on every play.
“It was chunk play after chunk play,” he said. “It’s night and day, the O-line this year. Whoever’s got the ball is untouched until 8 to 10 yards past the line. I rarely am getting touched at the line.”
Northwest squeaked by Mehlville 12-7 last season. Stark said it was his worst game of the season.
“Because I had two fumbles in the red zone,” he said.
Determined to not let Mehlville hang around in the second half, Stark hit junior Kaleb Belcher with a pass for more than 40 yards on Northwest’s first drive of the second half. Stark said Belcher’s effort motivated the team to finish the drive with the QB scoring from 8 yards with 7:10 left in the third.
“That was coming right out of halftime and it was a contested catch,” Stark said. “(Belcher) fought off a defender for 10 more yards and that gave us momentum. The big focus this summer – I was always a running back until my freshman year. I’m already familiar with running, so our big focus was getting on the same page with my receivers.”
Senior RB Drew Spratt had TD runs of 3 and 1 yards for the Lions in the first half and finished with 55 yards on seven carries. Senior RB Jon Casey completed the Northwest scoring with a 34-yard TD run with 43 seconds left. Casey averaged 12.5 yards on his four carries.
“Drew’s a workhorse for us,” Northwest head coach Scott Gerling said. “When we get into red zone and goal line situations, we have no problem giving it to kids like him.”
The Lions have scored 118 points in their first two games, and the main benefactor has been sophomore kicker Cayden Richard, who for the second week in a row made eight PATs, tying his school record. His other attempt against Mehlville was blocked.
Making PATs and field goals at the high school level is almost never a certainty. The three-step function of snap, hold and kick is a lot more difficult than it appears on TV. Junior center Jeremiah Clines snaps the ball to Stark, who holds it until Richard swings his leg. He’s made 42 PATs in 12 varsity games. Gerling said Stark is a good holder in case of a bad snap and the play breaks down.
“Cayden has full trust in me,” Stark said. “There are times where Cayden is going through his kick and I’m just putting it on the ground. He makes his kick. He won the game against Sullivan last year. A lot of times without him, games could have gone another way.”
Northwest travels to Imperial on Friday to play Seckman (1-1) in an Orange pool game. The Jaguars have beaten the Lions four straight years by an average score of 54-7. Seckman escaped Fox with a 21-14 overtime win last week and are led by multi-faceted QB Brody Kube and a swarming defense.
“We are very confident,” Stark said. “We’re all expecting this to be one of the most competitive games against Seckman in a long time. We’re on a roll and we feel like we can go into their house and put up a good fight.
“They will and always have been a very physical punch-you-in-the-mouth team and our goal is to match that.”
Gerling thinks the Lions can match the Jaguars physically.
“I like to think so. Our whole goal was to get kids in the weight room so they believe what they can do physically. Not just on a daily or yearly basis, but ongoing.”