With Enterprise returning 18 starters from last year’s team that went 12-1, Lake coach Tate Hanna knew his Hornets would have their hands full.
Hanna was right as the Lake offense struggled and Enterprise plodded away to a 31-0 win on Friday night.
Lake, now 0-1 on the season will host rival Sebastopol, a 40-0 win over McAdams this week.
Hanna knew the Hornets would have their hands full with the Bulldogs.
“Enterprise is a tough team, and we knew it would be a tough game,” Hanna said. “Field conditions weren’t good and that played to their favor with the type of offense they run. We gave them a couple of big plays on third downs. On offense, we weren’t doing anything and gave them a short field. Enterprise is going to ground and pound and will catch you once or twice with a pass. I think our effort was there, we just have to continue to get better.”
The two teams swapped punts to start the game and Enterprise scored on its second drive. The Bulldogs went 57 yards in five plays and scored on a 35-yard run to go up 7-0.
After a Lake punt, Enterprise went 49 yards in six plays and scored on a 1-yard quarterback sneak to go up 14-0 at the end of the first quarter.
“They return nine starters on each side of the ball, and you expect them to be good,” Hanna said. “It was a tough one. We just have to figure something we can hang our hat on, and we just don’t have that right now. Jalen got a little banged up and we have to get some guys healthy. And we have to get better up front.
Enterprise added a touchdown and field goal in the second quarter and led 24-0 at the half.
“The good part is the effort was there, especially on defense,” Hanna said. “We played a lot of people that haven’t played a lot. We started five or six kids that have never started a high school game before and played a lot of freshmen. We can get to where we need to be, we just have to continue to plug away. The first couple of games are tough and Enterprise is a really tough one to start with.”
The Bulldogs added a third-quarter score for the final margin of 31-0 as Enterprise had 283 yards of offense and 41 passing for 324 yards of total offense.
The Hornets struggled on offense with 52 yards rushing and 16 passing for 68 yards of total offense.
Nicholas Macklin led the offense with 38 yards on 12 carries while Kelon Rhodes had 24 yards on 13 carries.
Gray was 3-of-10 passing for 16 yards. Cameron Hunt had two catches for 11 yards.
On defense, Ny’Zavion McClendon had 11.5 tackles while Jamarrion Blaylock and Rodarius Nelson had 7.5 tackles apiece. Kelon Rhodes had five tackles while Cameron Hunt had 3.5 tackles. Kenny Ray Hana, Jamarii Spivey and Demetrius Towner each had three tackles apiece while Kyran Fortune had 2.5 tackles.
“I was pleased with the back half of the defense,” Hanna said. “It was a tough week. We didn’t have a lot of practice time and any time you have young kids, you need the practice time. We were in the gym for two days, but the effort was there. And I can handle that. We have to find something offensively that we can do, and we haven’t done that yet.”
