LC wakes up in time
Call it a lesson learned.
The Lake City Timberwolves, freshly ranked No. 1 in the state in this week’s 5A football poll, slept for most of the first half before awakening in the second to defeat the Kennewick Lions 42-17 in LC’s home opener Friday.
Senior quarterback Garren Hammons, who rushed for three touchdowns and threw for another, did not guarantee his team would never come out flat again – Kennewick led 10-7 at the half – but said the T-Wolves (2-0) are fully aware of that particular pitfall.
“We were very lackadaisical in the first half,” said Hammons, who completed 8 of 11 passes for 137 yards and rushed 12 times for 91. “But once we got back to the basics, we stepped it up in the second half.
“We learned a lot – because it happened to us last year in homecoming against Lakeland … we came out like we didn’t have to play to win.”
Penalties plagued LC in the first half as the T-Wolves committed eight, many of which extended Kennewick drives.
The Lions (0-1) got on the board first when, after a blocked LC punt, senior quarterback Jonathan Buckingham hit wideout Jarrod Mendenhall with a 14-yard touchdown strike.
Kennewick added a field goal later in the second quarter to take a 10-0 lead and apparent control of the game.
But in the waning moments of the half, a brilliant 53-yard catch by senior wideout Matt Widmyer gave the T-Wolves the spark they were looking for.
Hammons, who would take it in himself from 11 yards out three plays later, gave Widmyer all the credit for what he viewed as a less-than-stellar pass.
“Matt’s our best football player, and it was just a big play that he made,” Hammons said of the across-the-middle catch, which Widmyer snatched from the grasp of 6-foot-5 Kennewick defensive back Ross Thoelke. “He stepped up the intensity – big players make big plays in big situations.
“It was definitely a duck, but I’m glad he brought it down.”
The second half was all Lake City, which fed the Lions a heavy dose of junior running back B.J. Palmer.
Palmer, who carried the ball 16 times for 101 yards and a touchdown, had 10 carries for 78 yards in the second half.
LC coach Van Troxel was handing out grades after the game, and though nobody received an “A,” he seemed pleased that they got the “W.”
“You have to come ready to play every game like it’s important,” said Troxel, whose father coached for years at Kennewick, including coaching Lions coach Bill Templeton. “We just kind of showed up like, ‘We’re the Timberwolves,’ and thought maybe that they would roll over – they surely didn’t roll over.
“We were real lucky that we were as close as we were at halftime and we got some things squared away – we picked up the intensity and Matt Widmyer was a huge key to igniting us.”