T-Wolves Roll In Mud

One of the inherent beauties of football is that it can be played under almost any conditions. In fact, most players feel the nastier the weather and field conditions, the more fun it is.

Lake City had fun Friday night in its last home game of the season, beating Lakeland 11-8 in a non-league defensive struggle. After the game, many Timberwolves took head-first slides in the sidelines mud.

During the game though, the Lake City defense was sending Hawks players sliding to the ground constantly with hard hits that caused three fumbles that were all recovered by Lake City.

“Our defense played hard and came up with some big plays at the end,” Lake City coach Van Troxel said.

Of those, none was bigger than Will Scott’s interception late in the fourth quarter that led to the Timberwolves’ only touchdown.

Scott returned it to the Lakeland 11-yard line and Scott Bushnell ran in a 1-yard plunge six plays later with 2:34 to play.

Scott was also responsible for Lake City’s other score when he kicked a 27-yard field goal in the second quarter.

“Will Scott played well tonight and that interception was a real key to the win,” Troxel said.

Lakeland was plagued all game by costly turnovers. Another that hurt considerably was a fumble by quarterback Kurt Reese that was recovered at the LC 3-yard line by Lake City when it looked as though a Lakeland score was inevitable.

“I was pleased with the way our kids hung in there when their backs were against the wall,” Troxel said.

The last Hawks fumble was caused by Lake City’s Adam Kammarcal midway through the fourth quarter that the T-Wolves recovered at midfield after Lakeland was driving. On the play before, an apparent 24-yard touchdown catch by Mike Larsen was called back because of a holding penalty and the Hawks wouldn’t threaten again. Larsen scored Lakeland’s touchdown on a 13-yard pass from Reese.

Lakeland defensive end Jared Mudge scored the other Hawks’ points on a safety in the third quarter.

Throughout the game, a thick fog shrouded the field. It resulted in the scoreboard being useless because the timekeeper couldn’t see what was happening on the muddy field.

Lake City, though, played just well enough to win going into next week’s crosstown match with Coeur d’Alene.

“We’re a lot closer to being ready for next week and we should go into the game with a pretty good attitude,” Troxel said.

“It might not have been pretty, but we got the job done,” T-Wolves running back Brian Ross said.