Lakota West looks to return to Ohio football final four

The defending Greater Miami Conference champions return plenty of firepower to make another run in the postseason.

Ryan Isley, SBLive Sports | Jul 29, 2022

Lakota West looks to return to Ohio football final four /

Photo by Ben Jackson / Video clips by Jordan Carter

SBLive is previewing some of the best Ohio high school football teams from all divisions. Here, we focus on 2021 regional finalist and Greater Miami Conference champion Lakota West.

Lakota West Firebirds

HEAD COACH

Tom Bolden, fourth season, 26-7

2021 AT A GLANCE

Overall Record: 11-2, regional finalist in Division I

Conference Record: 7-0, league champions, Greater Miami Conference

Playoffs: Def. West Clermont 49-14; Def. Milford 49-14; Def. St. Xavier 12-2; Lost to Moeller 21-17 in regional finals.

KEY DEPARTURES

Tegra Tshabola, OL, first team All-Ohio, The Ohio State University
Bryan Henderson, DL, first team All-Ohio, Indiana State University

Jyaire Brown, DB, first team All-Ohio, The Ohio State University

Alaex Afari, DB, first team All-Ohio, University of Kentucky

Aden Miller, LB, second team All-Ohio, University of Charleston

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Senior WR Trent Lloyd – His 612 yards receiving were good enough for third-most in the GMC last season and his eight receiving touchdowns were tied for the second-most in the conference. He also took back a punt for a touchdown. He was named first team All-GMC.

Senior QB Mitch Bolden – Earned first team All-GMC honors by leading the conference with 1,924 yards passing last season. He threw 21 touchdowns to just five interceptions. He also ran for 751 yards and 10 scores.

Senior OL Tony Curtis – The 6-foot-1, 250-pound lineman earned All-GMC first team honors last season.

Junior DL Elijah Davis – Was second on the team and sixth in the GMC with six sacks last season and he had 47 total tackles. He was named first team All-GMC as a sophomore.

Senior DB Josh Fussell – Led the GMC with six interceptions last season. He also had 41 tackles on the year.

Senior DB Malik Hartford – The Ohio State University commit had 58 tackles and two interceptions last year, including one returned for a touchdown. He is the second-rated player in the state of Ohio and the sixth-rated safety in the country according to 247Sports.

Senior DB Ben Minich – Had 49 tackles and an interception that he took back for a score. The sixth-rated player in the state has several Division I college offers, including Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Wake Forest and Duke.

Senior K Tyler Bohn – The first team All-GMC selection made 24 of his 25 extra point attempts and five of his six field goal attempts last season.

OUTLOOK

After a season that saw the Firebirds go 11-2 and make it to the regional finals, Lakota West looks to duplicate that and make a deeper run in the postseason.

Despite losing all five of their All-State selections from a year ago, the Firebirds return six players from the GMC champions who were named first-team All-Conference and another three players who were on the second team.

The QB-WR duo of Bolden and Lloyd return after hooking up for 51 pass completions, 512 yards and eight touchdowns. The Firebirds will have to replace the more than 1,000 yards rushing they got from Cameron Goode last year and hope that juniors Eudes Gonzalez, Jr and others can help with that.

Defensively, the Firebirds have two of the top six recruits in the state of Ohio in Hartford and Minich patrolling the secondary along with Fussell, who was the top interception guy in the conference a season ago. On the line, Davis will look to have even more of an impact than he did last season when he was second on the team in sacks behind Henderson, who is now at Indiana State.

The loss in last season’s regional final to Moeller meant Moeller would miss the state tournament for the first time since 2018.