Lakewood beats 10th-ranked Washington, 35-7
Published 10:38 pm Friday, August 31, 2012
By Jon Saperstein
Herald Writer
LAKEWOOD — With a 10th-ranked opponent on the road staring down Dan Teeter’s Lakewood football team, the Cougar coach couldn’t have asked for a much better start to the season.
Though Lakewood didn’t dominate from start to finish, each side of the ball took turns pushing Washington around the field Friday night at Franklin Pierce Stadium on the way to a 35-7 victory in the season-opener for both teams.
“We had a little bit of first-game jitters,” Teeter said. “We have plenty of things to work on.”
It was a subdued post-game speech for Teeter because the Cougars have high hopes for the season and made their share of mistakes, including four unsuccessful PATs. The game was in doubt into the third quarter.
Leading 12-7 at halftime, Lakewood quarterback Justin Peterson engineered a 7-play, 52-yard drive to open the third quarter. The senior captain punched in the score from eight yards out in a play that seemed to suck the wind out of both the home team and the home crowd.
The Patriots fumbled the ensuing kickoff to Lakewood and a 29-yard Randy Anaya field goal made it 23-7. With much-touted playmaker Victor Gamboa down thanks to a third-quarter injury, the Patriots offense struggled.
Peterson shined all over the field throwing for 102 yards and a score as well as rushing 13 times for 156 yards and two touchdowns — one for 79 yards. On defense he intercepted a Patriots pass at the Cougar 6-yard line.
Donovan Evans carried it 11 times for 93 yards and took two trips to the end zone for the Cougars.
Lakewood was ready from the opening kick, forcing three-straight 3-and-outs on defense and scoring on its first two possessions. The Patriots combined to rush for negative yards in the first quarter.
Peterson completed his first five pass attempts for 74 yards, including a 14-yard scoring strike to Paulmer Gregory that got Lakewood on the board 6-0 midway through the first quarter.
After the second stalled Patriots drive, Lakewood took over on the 50 and Evans burst through on 3rd-and-1 from the 41 for the second Cougar score.
However, as soon as the clock switched to the second quarter the Patriots found their groove in the ground game, racking up over 100 yards on the quarter. The Washington line opened holes for tailback Ramsey Davis, who rushed for 46 yards on the half. Those holes closed in the second half as he only finished with 55 yards on the game.
The other feared Patriots playmaker, running back Shawn Dixon, finally broke a pair of nice runs late in the second quarter, the second of which was good for 18 yards and a score, making it 12-7 at half. That drive proved to be the only offensive highlight on the night for the Pats.
At Franklin Pierce H.S.
Lakewood120176—35
Washington0700—7
L—Gregory 14 pass from Peterson (pass failed)
L— Evans 41 run (pass failed)
W—Dixon 18 run (Granados kick)
L—Peterson 8 run (Keen pass from Evans)
L—Anaya 29 FG
L—Evans 5 run (kick failed)
L—Peterson 79 run (kick blocked)
Records—Lakewood 1-0. Washington 0-1
