Injuries to key players ruined Lakeside’s hopes in a 42-12 loss to Calvary Friday night.
The Warriors were coming off of a program-defining win over North Caddo last week to open district play.
Friday night in Sibley, they were met with a storied program in Calvary that beat the Warriors by 52 points a season ago.
“It wasn’t what [Calvary] did as much as what we did to ourselves,” Lakeside head coach Jason McClendon said. “We had six injuries in the first half to starters on both sides of the ball.”
The Warriors fall to 1-1 in district play and 5-2 overall.
“On our first drive, we got exactly what we wanted,” McClendon said. “We took eight minutes off the clock with a good drive. We had a second down and six and fumbled the ball on a toss.”
The fumbled crushed the momentum the Warriors had been building.
“We were just about to their red zone and fumbled. I think had that not happened, the first half would have had a different dynamic.”
Joseph Wilson opened the game for Calvary with a 52-yard rushing touchdown to put the Cavaliers up 7-0 with four minutes left in the first quarter.
The Cavaliers scored two more touchdowns before Jacquez Lott finally put the Warriors on the board with a two-yard touchdown that culminated a successful drive for Lakeside with four minutes left before halftime. Lakeside trailed 20-6 after the two-point conversion failed.
“Jacquez did a good job, the offensive line did their job as well.”
Standout receiver Trey Sanders was injured in the first half. Sanders has been a key player offensively for the Warriors all season.
“He has a sprained ankle and a badly jammed thumb,” McClendon said. “We hope he can play next Friday.”
The Cavaliers scored twice before halftime to put Calvary up 33-6 at the half.
Zacheus Sumlin, another Warriors starter, was injured last week against North Caddo and did not play against Calvary.
“If we score instead of fumble on that first drive, if we don’t have the inuries, and if [Sumlin] plays, I think the spirit of the game would have been different,” McClendon said. “But that doesn’t really matter. I challenged the guys at halftime to go finish the game, and they did. We only gave up one score in the second half, and we scored as well.”
Lott scored his second touchdown of the night with a five-yard run right before the start of the fourth quarter.
Lakeside travels to LaSalle next Friday. LaSalle is 3-4 this season.
“LaSalle is a big, physical team, a couple of 300-pound guys on their line,” McClendon said. “It will not be a pleasant place for us to play.”