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Walking off the field and looking at the scoreboard after the post-game handshake, Lakewood coach Thadd MacNeal perfectly summed up the battle between his Lancers and the Crenshaw Cougars on Friday night.
“Wow, that was a great high school football game.”
The eight-yard touchdown pass from Marquis Thompson to Geno Hall with about two minutes to play proved to be the game-winner for Crenshaw, but that doesn’t begin to tell the story of this zero week clash that went the Cougars way, 28-27.
Both teams are contenders in their respective Section- mostly due to offensive firepower- and neither team disappointed the crowd at Crenshaw High as the two units played tit-for-tat most of the night. While Thompson finished 13-for-16 with two touchdowns, Lakewood quarterback Jesse Scroggins countered with 201 yards and three touchdowns on 17-for-27 passing.
It all got started on the first play from scrimmage when Thompson found Hall (9 catches, 122yds, 2TD) sprinting down the sideline. Hall jumped over the Lakewood defenders going for the ball and tipped it to himself as he ran into the end zone.
The amazing catch served as the lit fuse, and Lakewood took the cue. The Lancers responded on their first drive, going 60 yards in nearly ten minutes before Scroggins found Justin Utupo in the end zone to tie it up, 7-7.
Crenshaw’s retort came quickly and running back DeAnthony Thomas (8 carries, 82yds) ran around the Lakewood defense on three consecutive plays before he punched it in for the go-ahead score. Hall ran in a botched snap on the extra point for the two-point conversion to make it 15-7.
The Lakewood running back rotation of Ally Long, Terrance Woods and Rashad Wadood led the ensuing Lakewood drive. Woods capped it with 25-yard weaving touchdown run on a counter play. Then after an interception by Ryan Cummings, Scroggins led the Lancer right back down the field as the half expired. He found receiver Chris Davis at the pylon with less than a minute remaining to make it 21-15 Lakewood at halftime.
Go ahead and catch your breath, because that’s what everyone at the game was doing after 362 yards of total offense in two quarters.
When the teams returned to the field we were all reminded that these two extremely talented squads were still just high school kids playing the first game of the season. The mistakes started pilling up as penalties (11 offside/false start), fumbled snaps and blocked punts swung momentum in an instant, but the Lancers maintained the lead.
“Both teams made the mistakes you see in these early games,” said coach MacNeal. “But you learn and work hard to get better and limit them.”
After Scroggins found Davis for the duos second touchdown with eight minutes remaining in the game, it seemed perfect timing for Thompson and Hall to bookend their performance.
On the eventual game-winning drive, the two hooked up six times, the last of which was the fade route Hall pulled down in the corner of the end zone. Scroggins and the Lancers had about two minutes to put together a comeback drive of their own, but a big sack from linebacker Hayes Pullard forced a third-and-long and Lakewood turned it over on downs.
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