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Colerain clinches share of GMC title

With two weeks left in the regular season, Colerain clinched a tie for first place in the GMC with a 28-0 win over Fairfield on Friday.

Five teams are two games back of the Cardinals in the conference, including Fairfield, Mason and Lakota East. Colerain has beaten the former two and does not play the latter.

The Indians held the Cardinals to seven first-half points, but Colerain found the end zone once in the third frame and twice more in the fourth to seal it. The Cardinals held Fairfield to 147 yards of offense, including just 54 on the ground on 30 carries.

Colerain's Monalo Caldwell (photo by James Adams/TSF staff).

Colerain’s Monalo Caldwell (photo by James Adams/TSF staff).

“We knew there were 2 great defenses,” Colerain coach Tom Bolden said. “It was billed up to what it was, and (Fairfield) has got a tremendous defense, and it was a battle.”

Monalo Caldwell rushed 21 times for 141 yards and a pair of touchdowns, and Deante Smith-Moore gained 86 rushing yards and scored once in 14 carries for Colerain.

“(We) let Monalo do his thing, and he’s 217 pounds of muscle, and that wears on teams after awhile,” Bolden said.

J.J. Davis also scored a rushing TD, and Keontae Jones returned a punt 72 yards for the other Cardinals touchdown.

“At halftime, coach B gave us a great speech, and we had to do our thing and run the ball,” Caldwell said.

Defensively, the Cardinals recorded five sacks including two by Kawantay Stanley, and they intercepted two passes – one by Kyle Bolden and the other by Amir Riep.

It was the second shutout of the season for Colerain, and the fifth time this year it has held an opponent to single-digit scoring.

“If we don’t score we know our defense can stop anybody so we just keep our heads up because we know we’ll get another series,” Caldwell said.

The Cardinals, who are 8-0, are two games away from their first unbeaten regular season since 2013 and will travel to Lakota West next week.

Fairfield dropped its second straight game after a 5-1 start and will host Lakota East next week in a battle of teams tied for second place in the GMC.

TSF’s James Adams contributed to this report.

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