FREMONT – History was made Friday night at Don Paul Stadium.
Noah Hotz
Not only did Fremont Ross win in thrilling fashion that will go down in Little Giants lore for years to come with their 43-42 win over Findlay, but wide receiver Noah Hotz and quarterback Hayden Lehmann each rewrote a few pages in the record book.
With his five catches for 93 yards, Hotz tied Paul Hershey atop the all-time receptions list, with 67 career catches. With his next catch, Hotz will be hold the record by himself.
Hotz also moved into ninth all-time in receiving yards with 859, passing Kyle Cook’s mark of 780. Hotz is now closing in on Jarren Hampton (872 yards, Class of 2016) and Ross boys basketball coach John Cahill (892 yards, Class of 1987) on the career list.
“I knew before the game (I was getting close to the record), but during the game it wasn’t going through my head,” Hotz said. “I just wanted to go out and make the plays I can make.”
Hotz, in his fourth year on varsity having been the Little Giants punter since his freshman year, brings a quiet, steady presence in addition to his game-breaking abilities.
“Noah is just a play-maker,” head coach Chad Long said. “He gets all the respect of every player on the team. Everyone loves Noah, he’s a team-effort guy, he’ll do whatever for the team, sacrifice his body, he was getting destroyed coming across the middle a couple times tonight, but he gets up. He’s a trooper. We’ll find out next year just how big a loss he’ll be, but I’ll tell you we don’t get many special kids like that that play offense, defense and special teams like he does.”
Hayden Lehmann
As for Lehmann, the senior signal-caller checked off both single-game and career milestones Friday night.
Against Findlay last year, Lehmann set Ross’ single-game record for passing yardage with 428 yards. Against Findlay Friday night, Lehmann set a new high for single-game pass attempts, throwing the ball 49 times, breaking Jalen Slick’s record of 47 in Ross’ 51-83 loss to Toledo Central Catholic in 2014.
Also, Lehmann became just the fifth Little Giant quarterback to break the 3,000-yard mark in a career. Lehmann now has 3,277 career yards, passing Slick (3,201) for fourth all-time.
For his career, Lehmann has now thrown the ball 487 times, moving into third place on the all-time list. Only Aaron Opelt (654, from 2003-2005) and Cody Foos (626, 2007-2009) have more.
As for completions, Lehmann has 231 and Friday night passed Slick (219) to take over fourth in that category as well, just four behind Tyler Wolf (235, 2010-2012) for third.
“When you have a quarterback like we have with Hayden Lehmann, …Great players make plays,” Long said. “He has an unbelievable arm. He just has to trust in the system, trust that guys are open and get it to them and let them make plays.”
For his part, Lehmann is more concerned about Ross making team history and that starts by making the playoffs.
“We’re 2-2 now. We know we could have started off a little better but we know also we still have chance at the playoffs,” Lehmann said. “We have to carry this momentum through the rest of the season.”