Hawks whip Tigers
Panic may as well have been a foreign word at Lakeland High on Friday night.
Lakeland running back Shawn Hiebert rushed for 172 yards and three touchdowns to help the Hawks rebound from an early deficit en route to a 37-22 victory over Timberlake at Corbit Field in a non-league contest.
After his team trailed 14-3 in the second quarter, Hiebert took control with a number of long-distance gains against the Tigers’ perimeter defenders. Hiebert’s 3-yard touchdown run gave the Hawks their first lead of the game at 16-14, and he added a 16-yard scoring romp 3 minutes later to push Lakeland’s cushion to 22-14.
Hiebert credited his team for sticking with a ground-oriented game plan even after falling behind by two scores in the first half.
“That’s how football is at Lakeland – we hammer away every time,” said Hiebert, who capped the game’s scoring with a 12-yard touchdown run late in the fourth quarter. “My goal is to keep my legs moving and just try to get as many yards as I can.”
Lakeland quarterback Ryley Youngdell and receiver Dylan Cloyd paired up on two touchdown receptions. The first was a 16-yard strike that trimmed the Timberlake lead to 14-10, and the second – a 6-yarder – gave Lakeland an insurmountable 30-14 lead with just less than 4 minutes left in the third quarter.
Timberlake’s offense was sharp early, and running back Nicholas Puckett ran for 71 yards and a 27-yard touchdown in the first quarter. The Tigers looked like a different team, however, when Lakeland ran 23 offensive plays during one stretch in the first half, compared to only two plays for the Tigers during that same span.
Granted, one of those plays for Timberlake was Matthew Jutila’s 69-yard touchdown run, but the Tigers looked a step slower after Lakeland chewed up nearly 11 minutes of clock on those two long scoring drives.
Puckett finished with 81 yards on 20 carries. Lakeland also contained Tigers quarterback Levi Powers, who entered the game leading the Intermountain League with 849 rushing yards and nine touchdowns. Powers finished with 31 yards on eight carries, including a 13-yard touchdown run in the third quarter that pulled Timberlake within 30-22.