The562’s coverage of Lakewood Athletics is sponsored by J.P. Crawford, Class of 2013.
It’s nice when your mistakes are hidden in a win—especially the way Lakewood won its home opener against St. Anthony on Friday night. Despite a string of miscues and nearly 200 yards in penalties, the Lancers still managed to dominate the Saints at home in a 35-14 victory.
“Obviosuly there’s the negatives with the turnovers and the penalties, which we have to be better with,” said first-year Lakewood coach Mario Morales. ”But I still thought that we did some good things on offense and defense. So even there we had a lot of negatives there were some positives and something to build on as we move on.”
There was plenty of action right out of the gate in the cross-town matchup. Lakewood senior Tiwan Jones intercepted a pass on the play of the game, but St. Anthony receiver Andres Mendoza punched the ball loose and recovered it. The Saints capitalized, continuing their opening possession and capping an eight-play drive with an Aidan Jones touchdown pass to tight end Evan Martinez.
After a good return by Jones on the ensuing kickoff, Lakewood replied with a quick 40 second drive ending in a 12-yard scamper into the endzone by QB Kade Casillas. The Lancers then forced a punt before capitalizing on good field positioning again on a 45-yard strike from Casillas to Taeshaun Dunn.
“I think it just took us being confident,” Casillas said of the difference in his offense after they were shutout last week at Carlsbad. “I think our O’Line really trusted each other and we all played like we knew what we were capable of.”
The game slowed down after the first quarter, and the next score didn’t come until under two minutes to play in the half. The score came in the form of a safety, when Kaelib Verduzco and Gregory Gibson made a tackle for loss in the St. Anthony endzone to give Lakewood a 15-7 lead before the break.
Jones then struck for Lakewood on the very next play after the half, taking the opening kickoff of the third quarter down the field for a touchdown. Jones added another interception in the fourth quarter, finishing with a pair of interceptions and that kickoff return for the touchdown.
“We have a young team and I’m a three year starter, so I’ve just tried to bring all of my past experiences to set the example not only just for the defense but for the whole team,” Jones said after the game. “I’m just trying to show my team that we can beat anybody if we stay level headed and be us.”
Lakewood found a touchdown on its next offensive drive thanks to a handful of completions from Casillas. Casillas found Kenny Niumatavaelu and Kagiso Boikanyo on that drive for a pair of 20-yard pickups, before hitting running back Jordan Montgomery in the flats for a four-yard touchdown.
The two teams traded a couple of turnovers in the fourth quarter, including interceptions from Jones and Sammy Gomez, while Lakewood coughed up a fumble the other way. The fumble was picked up inside of their own endzone for a touchdown by defensive guard Lucas Duran.
Lakewood scored once more with under two minutes to play on a 12-yard screen pass to Niumatavaelu. Niumatavaelu finished his night with six catches for 116 yards and a touchdown. Casillas went 14/22 for 291 yards with four total touchdowns and a pair of fumbles.
Along with the two turnovers, Lakewood recorded a staggering 18 penalties for 175 yards. In contrast, St. Anthony committed eight penalties for 37 yards and had three turnovers.
Lakewood will travel to Edison next week while St. Anthony will be at Torrance.
