It seems like each Friday night, a Moore League wide receiver takes over a game. 

Last week, Wilson’s Ezell Ruffin was remarkable, and this Friday it was Lakewood senior Kevin Anderson who scored three touchdowns to ignite a stagnant Lancers offense in a lackluster 28-7 win over visiting Palos Verdes Peninsula.

Anderson scored on a 46-yard strike from Jesse Scroggins at 3:23 of the second quarter to give the Lancers a 7-0 lead.  The drive was set up when Keanu Kalolo picked off Panthers quarterback Anthony Papadakis to give Lakewood a short field. Less than 90 seconds later, Anderson and Scroggins combined on a 13-yard score and took a 14-0 lead into the break.

Darius Powe put the game away when he caught a 34-yard pass from Scroggins and took it the house.  Anderson and Scroggins were good again from 66 yards to cap the Lakewood (1-1) scoring.

The Panthers scored a meaningless touchdown when Brock Dale dove in from the one yard line with just 58 seconds to play, but to a proud Lancers defense it meant everything.  Despite dominating Palos Verdes at the line of scrimmage throughout, the pesky Lakewood defense kept challenging one another to produce a shutout.

It was anything but a happy win for Lakewood coach Thadd MacNeal, after he saw his Lancers commit at least 15 penalties, at least half of which were of the personal foul variety.

The brain-dead moment of the night came when Anderson had scored an 80-yard punt return, but 30 yards behind the play, a Lancer picked up a personal foul to deny Anderson his fourth score.

“We were undisciplined, at times lethargic, and all of that [the penalties, intensity] falls back on me as a coach because I apparently didn’t get them ready to play,” MacNeal said. “If we execute our passing game the way we’re capable, we’re running up and down the sidelines, so we need to get better at that.”

The USC-bound Scroggins finished 16-for-25 for 249 yards, he threw four touchdowns and was picked off once.  Anderson caught seven passes for a game-high 188 yards.

“It was tough to come back emotionally from the Crenshaw game, but we found a way to get it done,” Anderson said.. “We make way too many stupid mistakes, and if we’re going to get where we want to, we will have to cut down on all those penalties.”

The Lakewood defense played well, but they committed as many penalties as their offensive counterpart.  “I thought Ryan Cummings and Keanu Kalolo played especially well on defense, but we need to clean that aspect of our game up as well,” MacNeal said.”

Rashad Wadood had an interception for Lakewood, and Cummings recovered a fumble.  The Lakewood running game was kept in check, but MacNeal credited that to the Panthers putting seven or eight guys up front to stop the run.

If Lakewood is going to win the Moore League, their coaches and players know they’ll need to raise their level of discipline exponentially.

But having said that, the talent is there to battle the Poly’s and Jordan’s for the big prize.

“We are going to get in people’s ears who make those dumb penalties and they’ll pay for it on Saturday,” a frustrated Anderson said.

Lakewood will travel to Mayfair next Friday to take on the Monsoons, and expect to see the return of their best defensive player, Dion Bailey, who sat out Friday night with an injury.

“This is so tough as a senior to sit and watch from the sidelines, but I am glad my teammates stepped up and I look forward to getting back next week,” Bailey said.