After struggling on offense last week in a win over Nanih Waiya, the Lake Hornets got going this week against Stringer.
Lake rolled up 404 yards of total offense and took a 35-6 win over the Red Devils on Thursday in the regular-season finale.
Lake improved to 5-5 on the season and will host Pisgah on Friday night in the first round of the Class 2A playoffs.
Lake coach Tate Hanna said his team took care of business against the Red Devils.
“I was pleased with how they played,” Hanna said. “Our kids knew Stringer from playing them last year. I was worried about playing down because we beat them so bad last year. But we went down there and took care of business and stayed healthy. Defensively, we held them to 50 or 60 yards and had a good night on that side of the ball. We got to play several kids a lot of snaps that don’t normally get snaps with the first team so that was really good.”
After stopping Stringer on its first drive, Lake went 54 yards in five plays as Rodarius Nelson scored on a 19-yard run. Frank Pazos hit the PAT and Lake led 7-0.
After a Stringer punt, Lake went 66 yards in eight plays as Jalen Gray scored on a 15-yard run. Pazos hit the PAT and Lake led 14-0, a score that lasted till the end of the first quarter.
After a third Stringer punt, lake then went 78 yards and Nickolas Macklin scored on a 25-yard run. Pazos hit the PAT and Lake led 21-0.
The Hornets added one more score in the first half as they went 42 yards in six plays as Gray hit Macklin on a 33-yard touchdown pass. The PAT was blocked, and Lake led 27-0 at the half.
“We wanted to establish the run and I thought we did a good job of that,” Hanna said. “I thought we were kind of off last week and weren’t as sharp as we should have been running the football and with some of our blocks. They were a good bit better than they were last year and we knew that going in. They just don’t have any explosive players that jump out at you. But I thought we did a good job of containing them and shutting them down.”
Lake got the ball to start the second half but was forced to punt. But Stringer muffed the punt and gave Lake the ball at the Stringer 40. Three plays later, Kelon Rhodes scored on a 36-yard run. Gay hit Kenny Ray Hanna on the two-point conversion and Lake led 35-0 to get the clock running.
Lake had 325 yards rushing and 79 passing for 404 yards of total offense. Rhodes led the offense with 167 yards rushing on 17 carries. Gray had 57 yards rushing on three carries while Nelson had 51 yards rushing on two carries.
Gray was 7-of-14 passing for 79 yards. Cameron Hunt had two catches for 27 yards while Macklin had one catch for 32 yards.
