When Tate Hanna took over the football program at Lake High School, he insisted he wanted to instill a toughness in his players.
That toughness showed up on Friday night when the Hornets stunned Philadelphia 34-30 to knock the top-ranked Tornadoes from the ranks of the unbeaten.
With the win, Lake improves to 7-2 on the season and 2-1 in Division 4-2A play.
After the biggest win in his brief time at Lake, Hanna was proud of the way his team played.
“Of course, that’s the first complete game that they have played,” Hanna said. “They played their butts off. We told them all week that nobody expected us to win and we had nothing to lose and our kids played like that. I thought we did a good job of running the football. That was the first time they have been hit in the mouth like that.”
The Hornets had a big night on offense as they rushed for 243 yards, led by Mark Qualls who had 149 yards on 26 carries and scored four touchdowns.
“It’s the first time all year that I thought we have been physical the whole game,” Hanna said. “It was the first time that we have dominated the whole game. We have played good at times and been physical at times but not for an entire game. We showed that in the first half against Scott Central.”
The Hornets also threw for 137 yards for 380 yards of total offense, hitting several big plays on the Tornadoes.
“We made some big plays in the passing game,” Hanna said. “When somebody goes man on us, we have to take a chance in the passing game. Mark completed two big plays on halfback passes. And I thought Mickey (Parker) stepped up and made some big throws in the second half.”
The Hornets came out and took control of the game as they took the opening kickoff and drove 73 yards in 10 plays as Seth Prestage scored on a 22-yard run. The two-point attempt failed and Lake led 6-0.
Philadelphia answered with a four-play, 45-yard drive to tie the score at 6-6 with 5:18 left in the first.
But Lake answered right back wit a seven-play, 63-yard drive as Qualls scored on a 12-yard run with 2:59 left in the first for a 12-6 lead.
The Hornets got the ball right back and Qualls got lose again, this time on a 37-yard run. The two-point try failed and Lake led 18-6.
But Philadelphia ran back the ensuing kick and got another first-half score to tie the game at 18-18 at the half.
Lake struck first in the second half as the Hornets used a five-play, 55-yard drive to take the lead as Qualls scored on a 27-yard run with 4:00 left in the third quarter. Qualls ran in the two-point conversion and Lake led 26-18.
After a Philadelphia punt, Lake struck again. Qualls hit Zywon Ledbetter on a 45-yard halfback pass and later scored on a 9-yard run. Ethan Gray ran in the two-point conversion and Lake led 34-18.
Philadelphia then fought back with two fourth-quarter touchdowns on runs of 46 and 54 yards, the last with 6:19 left in the game.
Philadelphia had one last chance to win the game but the Hornet defense held inside the Philadelphia 20 as time expired.
After Qualls 149 yards, Gray had 57 yards on 15 carries. Qualls was also 2-of-3 passing for 81 yards while Mickey Parker was 3-of-8 for 56 yards. Ledbetter had two catches for 71 yards while D’Alex Jennings had one catch for 35 yards.
