GARFIELD HEIGHTS – On Friday, the Lakeside Dragons admittedly went up against a team that was physically superior. Yet, they came close to pulling out the improbable.

After falling behind twice by 21 points at Garfield Heights, the Dragons (1-2, 0-0) rallied for three touchdowns to tie the game as the third quarter came to a close. However, the effort fell short, as the Bulldogs were able to get the deciding score in a 35-28 victory.

Garfield marched 77 yards for the winning touychdown, which came when Nick Bowling (13-of-20, 252 yards, 3 TDs) hit a wide-open Luke Kupinewski for a 24-yard scoring pass on fourth-and-12 with 7:12 left to play.

Lakeside’s final threat ended when Reggie Parker intercepted a pass on fourth-and-seven at the Bulldog 29. Garfield (3-0) proceeded to run out the final 3:30.

“A couple of missed assignments (were critical) in the second half,” Lakeside coach Van McWreath said. “That came as a result of (the fact we had a few key players come out of the game because of cramps). I feel bad about (the fact the missed assignments hurt us).”

However, McWreath could not fault the effort, which included Derrell McCaleb’s 156 rushing yards and all four Lakeside touchdowns. And though it goes down as a defeat, there are certainly some positives to take away from this one.

“They’re bigger, faster, and stronger than us,” McWreath said. “On paper, they (appear to be much better than us). We didn’t expect to win this game.”

However, as McWreath also indicated, the Dragons have plenty of heart and fight, and weren’t going to quit. Disadvantaged in numbers as far as both bodies and the halftime score (28-7) were concerned, they retinkered their offense so that McCaleb ended up getting the pigskin a lot more.

The Dragons, who had early trouble keeping the Garfield pass rush out of the backfield and had minus — 15 yards of total offense late in the first half, totaled 127 in the third quarter, with McCaleb netting 103 yards on 12 carries.

Also, Lakeside kept the ball out of the Bulldogs’ hands. After McCaleb capped a 63-yard march with a three-yard run, the Dragons halted a drive when James Christian recovered a fumble and returned it 27 yards to midfield.

Then after McCaleb broke a 41-yard touchdown run and the Dragons atoned for a blocked extra-point attempt with a two-point conversion on a fake, the Dragons got the ball back when Garfield couldn’t handle Adam Flaugher’s line-drive kickoff. McCaleb, who had taken it in for 11 yards for his team’s initial touchdown, ended the quarter with a four-yard score to finish a 37-yard drive.

The Bulldogs also received a 138-yard rushing effort including TDs of 10 and 40 yards from Fred Swift, as well as a six-catch, 112-yard output, all in the first half, from John Lucas, who had touchdown receptions of 15 and 14 yards. The Dragons, for the most part, couldn’t stop the Bulldogs from moving the ball except for three fumble recoveries and a Joe Kelly interception.

Though it doesn’t officially count as one, one can pretty much include the kickoff recovery as though it were a fifth turnover.

“That’s part of our game,” McWreath said of the turnovers, while pointing to his team’s physical disadvantages in reference to the fact it could not stop the Bulldogs otherwise, said.

Another thing that helped Lakeside was a rash of Garfield penalties. The Bulldogs were flagged a whopping 18 times for 150 yards. In fact, Swift had touchdown runs of 69 and 60 yards and a 78-yard scoring reception all nullified in the first half.