The Lake Hornets turned in another strong performance on defense, and a good night on offense to take down visiting Choctaw Central 26-9 in front of the homecoming crowd at Death Valley last Friday night.
The Hornets got off to a fast start on offense, and had a chance to take total control of the game in the opening quarter. Untimely penalties spoiled multiple scoring chances early on, but in the end, Lake was too strong for the visiting Warriors.
Hornets’ head coach Tate Hanna said his offense is improving every week. “Our offense played well Friday night and ended up with 380 yards of total offense,” he said. “We were able to move the ball all night long, but we’re still having a problem finishing drives and putting the ball in the endzone.”
Lake’s sophomore quarterback Brady McGee had a good game leading the offense and got the Hornets off to a good start early in the game. On the first possession McGee finished the drive with a touchdown pass to give the Hornets the lead it would not relinquish.
On their second possession, the Hornets drove deep in to Warriors territory, and appeared to have scored on a 15-yard scoring strike thrown by McGee. However, there was flag thrown during the play and the touchdown pass was nullified due to a questionable penalty. Lake would fail to score after the penalty slowed the momentum the offense had built on their first two drives.
“If that second touchdown doesn’t get called back, on a very questionable call by the referees, we would have been well on our way to putting them away early,” Hanna said. “That penalty slowed our momentum and we let them stay in the game a lot longer than we should have.”
Choctaw Central is a big team physically across both the offensive and defensive front, and played very physical at the point of attack. This allowed their quarterback to make some great plays that kept the Warriors within striking distance on the scoreboard when, in actuality, LHS could’ve had the game in hand by halftime.
“Choctaw is one of the biggest teams physically I’ve seen in a long, long time,” Hanna said. “I was very pleased with how physical we were up front, and how we really took control in the second half.”
After halftime, the Hornets holstered the passing attack and went to the running game to control the ball and kept the clock moving. McGee did not attempt a single pass in the second half as the Hornets handed the ball off on every play. Johnny Johnson led the way with 82 yards rushing as Lake ran over the visiting Warriors and moved to 4-0 on the season.
“In the second half our o-line really stiffened and we took control up font. We did not throw a single pass in the second half. We were able to keep moving the ball with the ground game and the clock moving on the scoreboard. I’m pleased with how our offense played, and our defense was as solid as it’s been all year. The only hiccup we’ve had on defense was against Kemper County, but we did enough to win. Other than that game, our defense has been steady and strong, and our offense is making improvements every week.”
The Hornets will host the Morton Panthers (2-3) this Friday night in their attempt to claim the Scott County Highway 80 bragging rights for the year. Lake has already defeated the Forest Bearcats 14-13 to start the season, so they will look to make it 2-0 against in-county opponents.
“We have a tough matchup this week against a good football team,” Hanna said. “Coach (Sean) Gerald really has his team improving every week. We will have to play smart and sound football, and avoid costly penalties to get a win. They have a running back that runs hard and can break one on you in a hurry, so we are going to have to continue to play tough defense.”
