WARRIORS, RAIDERS ROUND TWO

Northwest Ohio Raiders and Johnny Alridge look to revenge their loss to the Warriors earlier this season.

By Joel Renner

Lima Warriors Chief Staff Reporter

7/4/07 – LIMA, OH -- With a tough opening month completed without a hitch, Lima finally may be able to relax.

However, the top-ranked Warriors will have to avoid becoming complacent as they try to stretch their home field win streak to 13 games whey they host Northwest Ohio on Saturday.

Lima (5-0) solidified its hold on the top spot with victories over three highly-ranked teams in June, and two other wins over pesky opponents.

The Warriors’ schedule gets significantly easier from here, starting with Saturday’s divisional game against the Raiders (1-4).

Lima still faces two teams at the bottom of the United States Football Alliance standings and doesn’t face too serious of a threat after they go up against No. 5 West Virgina Crash on July 14.

“We’ve got to contain their quarterback Johnny Alridge,” Lima coach John Parkins said.  “He’s a playmaker and at any given time he can throw it or run for a touchdown.”

The Warriors did their best to forget about both of their losses from last season, beating then-undefeated Akron 28-0 on June 9 and then considered best in Ohio- Cleveland 9-7 on June 23.

Lima also took care of business against Delphos and Northwest Ohio before dominating then-undefeated Motor City 32-6 last Saturday.

There weren’t many teams in Ohio that faced such a difficult opening slate, but now the Warriors will likely be favored by double digits in every game except possibly when they travel to West Virginia to face the Crash.

“We know what they have and I just have to keep the guys down to earth and focused,” Parkins said.  “We can’t play down to our opponents level, which I felt we did a little bit last week.”

The Warriors played up to their ranking against the Soldiers.  Veteran quarterback Justin Henderson threw two touchdown passes and Lima rushed for 187 yards, keeping possession most of the game.

The defense has pushed Lima to the top of the list of the nation’s best contenders by allowing only two touchdowns and grabbing five interceptions, while holding offenses to 39 rushing yards in five games, best in USFA.

“We just have to play top-notch the whole game and we shouldn’t have any problems,” Parkins said.

Possibly the best news from the 5-0 start, though, has been the play of Lima’s new players, which have all been huge assets early on in the season.

The Warriors had to replace a few starters from last year’s team, including team president and veteran lineman Brock Hartman and veteran middle linebacker Davey Settlemire, but haven’t missed a beat, allowing only 2.6 points per game to rank first in the league.

Wayne LeGrant has intercepted four passes this season to pace the secondary and more are expected to come from himself, Brandt Huttis, Yansey Donald, Pierre Jackson and others.

The two teams last met on June 16 and Northwest Ohio failed to give then- No. 4 Lima much of a fight in a 47-0 loss at Clyde High School, but this game may be even tougher for the Raiders with the home crowd support behind the Warriors.

Northwest Ohio has struggled this season, but veteran quarterback and former Warrior, Johnny Alridge, looks to make a big splash in his return to Lima land.

The Raiders lost four straight games, until they posted a 14-6 victory over Delphos last Saturday.

Alridge found Brandon Sharples for a 4-yard TD pass and the quarterback also ran for a 57-yard score in the win.

“Defense stepped up very well this game and the offense put points on the board,” said Alridge.

Kickoff is at 7 p.m. at Lima Stadium and Aaron Matthews will host the pre-game show with coach John Parkins at 6:30 p.m. and live game broadcast at limawarriors.com.

This season Lima is 3-0 against divisional opponents, with each game on the road.