FAISON — After inclement weather pushed their road game back from Friday to Monday night, Lakewood (2-3) came away victorious over North Duplin 28-14.
The win breaks a two-game losing streak the Leopards rode into the game against the Rebels.
Lakewood running back Calvin Lacewell led the way on the ground with 139 yards on 24 carries and two touchdowns to account for half of the Leopard scoring. Fellow running backs Jeremiah Kerr, Donovan Smith, and quarterback Burroughs Strickland all contributed with five carries and 27 yards as well.
Out of the seven passes attempted, Strickland completed five for 57 yards and two passing touchdowns.
“At the beginning of the game, we didn’t play like we needed to, and North Duplin did exactly what they wanted to do.” Lakewood head coach Travis Elliot said in a phone interview.
“They controlled the ball and the first half. We ended up going into halftime down 6-14, and really tried ot establish ourselves. They gave us a couple of different fronts that we hadn’t figured out how to adjust to. We made adjustments on both sides of the ball, came out and played the way we wanted to play. We were able to hold them to 23 total yards of offense in the second half, and then offensively, we were very balanced, which was what we were trying to be. We caused a fumble and a turnover on downs. With the style of offense they play, you want to make them play from behind, and we were able to do that.”
Elliot was elated with the defensive performance shown during the second half of the contest.
“I was real proud of how our guys responded in the second half,” he stressed. To hold that offense to only 23 yards in a half … our adjustments that we made were very good. Jacob Bunce led us with nine tackles at middle linebacker and really set the tone. We had a slew of players with five and six themselves, so I was really impressed with that part.”
Keeping the team focused after what essentially amounted to a weekend’s worth of downtime was a challenge.
“It’s tough, especially on a Monday,” Elliot said. “We talked about being present where our feet are at the beginning of the game. Then, at halftime, we talked about how it was time to not let our lips move; it’s time to let our pads do the talking, and we’re going to find out. I went for it on fourth and one on our own 29-yard line in the third quarter. If that tells you how much I told them we were either going to go home losing or winning, but it wasn’t going to be by me not rolling the dice and believing in them. They stepped up and answered the bell.”
The victory over North Duplin was also the first time the Rebels had lost all season.
The Leopards previously faced off in close losses against Midway (5-0) and Fairmont, where they fought to stay in the game, but were unable to get over the hump.
“You question yourself a little bit at first, because you know our non-conference is outside of Lejeune and is against schools that are twice our size,” Elliot explained. “Three of the big ones that we played, they all have winning records. We’ve played some stiff competition, so it’s hard to gauge that. I think people don’t see it that way as I do. But you got other programs; their non-conferences dealt with more people their own size. I think it’s made us more battle-tested, and I think that’s why we were able to handle the punch that North Duplin gave us and not get knocked down, and if we did get down, we got back up. North Duplin’s a big game; they were undefeated and considered the number one power strength of schedule to date out of anybody in 2A in NC. I don’t know what all those numbers mean; I just know that we got to keep winning.”
Ahead of their next home game against West Columbus this Friday at 7 p.m. Lakewood’s homecoming, Elliot knows that the turnaround for the team’s mentality has to be quick.
“We got another tough competition against a whole different style of offense this Friday with West Columbus,” he emphasized. “They’ve got a really good quarterback; they can put points on the board if you don’t align properly and get where you need to be. But it’s a great feeling in this game (against North Duplin). You enjoy it for about the bus ride home, and then as soon as you get in, it’s flipping it on and going on to the next program for this Friday. I’m happy for our men, but we’ve still got a lot of work to do.”