The562’s football coverage for the 2026-27 school year is sponsored by Long Beach Poly alums Wendell “WoWo” Moe, Jr. & Tyson Ruffins.
The562’s coverage of Lakewood Athletics is sponsored by J.P. Crawford, Class of 2013.
Rivalry wins never need to be pretty, they just need to happen.
For the first time since 2014, the Lakewood Lancers (2-2) celebrated their second straight win over their rivals from Mayfair High (2-2), hanging onto the Milk Bucket trophy after a 24-17 victory at Ron Yary Stadium on Friday night.
The Lancers leaned on their defense and an effective running game to hang onto the win. While many on the visitors’ sideline felt like the final score should have been a little more comfortable for Lakewood, head coach Mario Morales was pleased to get the win and get his team back to .500 on the season.
“We kept fighting and never gave up, and that’s kind of been the mantra for us all year,” Morales said. “Hey, no matter what, if it’s 48-3 or 28-21, it doesn’t matter, we’ve got to keep fighting. There were times where (Mayfair) started to get the momentum, but our guys, you can tell they still wanted to keep fighting. So kudos to them because they understand it, and they came out on top because they believed and they didn’t give up.”
Senior running back Thales Nguyen ran the ball 20 times for 122 yards and a pair of first-half touchdowns to fuel the Lakewood offense. QB Aidan Kautsky was 19/29 through the air for 153 yards and a score.
Lakewood got out to a 17-0 lead midway through the second quarter, and scored just one touchdown in the second half, but the defense did its job to prevent a Mayfair comeback. Senior defensive lineman Garon Harden had three sacks to lead the way for the Red Swarm, but perhaps most impressive was their work against Mayfair’s running game.
Senior Mayfair running back Jeromy Powell entered Friday’s game coming off a 254-yard, 4-TD performance a week prior, but Lakewood held him to just 14 yards on 13 carries. Monsoons QB Lukasz Shriver ran for 30 yards on six carries, but the rest of the rushers combined for only 12 yards on 15 carries against Lakewood’s defense.
“They played their tails off tonight, and that showed,” said Morales of his run defense. “We knew that up front we had a chance to really do some good things, and we knew they were going to try to run the ball. I mean, I would too with (Powell), he’s a fantastic athlete, but for us to have the ability to not allow him to have big runs was huge tonight. Yeah, we’ve got to get better in the secondary, and we understand that. We’re young, we’re making some mistakes, but slowly, believe it or not, we’re getting better. But at the end of the day, what our front seven did tonight was special.”
Lakewood scored on the opening drive of the game when Jake Vega drilled a 37-yard field goal, then the Lancers hit pay dirt on their second possession when Nguyen rumbled in from 34 yards out.
Nguyen’s second TD run from 15 yards away gave the Lancers their biggest lead of the night, 17-0 with 4:51 until intermission, but the advantage didn’t last long.
Shriver let loose a 73-yard TD pass to Chace Driscoll on the second play of the ensuing drive, giving Mayfair a needed shot of life to cut the deficit to 17-6 at the half.
After a Mayfair field goal made it a 17-9 game, Lakewood was able to drive down and answer with a TD. Kautsky had plenty of time to survey the field before firing in an 8-yard TD to Terrish Weston, Jr. who made a great leaping catch to put the Lancers on top, 24-9.
Mayfair again got back within a score early in the fourth quarter thanks to a beautiful play design to allow Shriver to hit Powell in the flat for a 17-yard score. The two-point conversion made it 24-17 with 11:15 to play, and Lakewood’s defense was able to hold down the fort for the win.
Mayfair blocked a short punt to keep the deficit at seven points, and had two full possessions in the fourth quarter but couldn’t sustain a drive against Lakewood’s relentless pass rush of Harden and Marshawn Springer.
Lakewood will be at home next Friday night hosting Torrance, while Mayfair visits Dana Hills for a tough road matchup next week.
