Tigers cruise past Lakeland

SPIRIT LAKE — With his team leading its cross-district rival Lakeland 28-0 at halftime, Timberlake running back Matt Douglas admonished his teammates not to take anything for granted.

Douglas reminded the Tigers what happened a year ago against the Hawks. That’s when Lakeland jumped out to a 35-14 lead only to watch Timberlake score 44 unanswered points.

“I told our guys at halftime that we’re only up 28 points and they could come back. Remember what happened last year, we came back on them,” Douglas said. “We had to keep pounding the ball. We controlled the clock all night.”

No worries as it turned out. Timberlake more than made a 28-0 lead stand up as the Tigers manhandled Lakeland 38-7 in a non-league game at Van Tuinstra Memorial Field.

It was one of those games where everything Timberlake did turned out golden and everything Lakeland did, well, was quite the opposite.

“Our kids were embarrassed with their play last week,” said Timberlake coach Roy Albertson, whose team fell 34-14 to Riverside. “We really had a great week of practices. We put in some new things so we weren’t predictable. They (the Hawks) know us pretty good. This is the first game where we had all three phases of the game going well for us.”

After running back Nathan Anderson put the Tigers (3-1) ahead on a 36-yard touchdown run, Douglas broke off an 80-yard scamper that should have never been started.

Douglas took a pitch right and it appeared Lakeland lineman Ben Eachon was going to tackle him for a 4-yard loss. But Douglas shook free and got outside the Hawks’ pursuit and he was off to the end zone as Timberlake took a 13-0 lead with 7:12 left in the first quarter.

Perhaps the backbreaker for Lakeland (2-2) was when Tigers middle linebacker Blake Cord executed the tip drill to perfection by hauling in an interception and rumbling 29 yards to put Timberlake up 21-0 with 8:55 remaining before halftime.

The Tigers made it 28-0 when Travis Lazoran, on Timberlake’s first inside reverse play, dashed 34 yards untouched with 1:58 to go before intermission.

Lakeland coach Tim Kiefer offered no excuses.

“We got our butts kicked,” Kiefer said. “They came out and outhit us, they outcoached us, they outsmarted us, they outplayed us, they out-everythinged us.”

Timberlake added a 21-yard field goal from Cody Reisenauer in the third quarter. The Tigers capped their scoring when backup running back Eric Langlitz scored from 6 yards out early in the fourth quarter.

The Tigers finished with 436 yards of total offense – 383 of which came on the ground. Douglas led with 157 on nine attempts and Anderson had 99 on 13 carries.

“We thought we were taking a step in the right direction as far as leadership goes,” Kiefer said. “I’m not saying that we’re going necessarily the wrong direction, but our leaders did not step up tonight and take control of this game. It’s going to be a challenge in the immediate future that we need to address. The overriding theme is we’re just not competing. I do know there’s going to be some changes made.”

Douglas said the victory was especially sweet for the Tigers seniors because it came against their rivals. He said his team is ready to begin Intermountain League play. They play host to Priest River Friday.

Lakeland, meanwhile, jumps into the meat of its new Inland Empire League schedule when it plays host to Lake City Friday.