Lakeland High School Football Dreadnaughts 5A State Champions

The Dreadnaughts take down the St. Cloud Bulldogs, 47 to 14
by Jordan Thurn 

The Naughts’ kicked off the 2011 regular season at home, with a 47 to 14 victory over the St. Cloud Bulldogs. “We had a great week of practice and it paid off for us tonight. The scout team did a good job getting us ready for the game.” Devonte Mackey said.

Still with no word from FHSAA, Lakeland players Jacobe Stafford, Jadrian Clark, Chandler Brunson and Dustin Phillips are being restrained from play, considered ineligible until a time of ruling by an official. Left guard Matt Bowden said, “The team has come together well with the FHSAA thing, I think it has made us a stronger as a whole.”

The first quarter started out slow, then Ricquan Southward scored on a fade route for 10 yards with 4:36 remaining on the clock. The Bulldogs then rallied early in the second quarter to tie the game at seven. The Naughts retaliated during the next series with a six-yard touchdown run by Braxton Huggins , which finished off a 10 play drive. Tight end Ian Bacon caught two consecutive touchdowns later in the second quarter to bring the Naughts to a score of 27 to 7 at the half.

The defense shined in the third with a blocked punt by Randy Hampton, which was recovered by Logan Cochran and returned for a defensive touch down. During the next series, offense moved the ball down to the four where Forrest Cunningham finished the drive. Then, with 3:35 left in the half, defensive back Tre’ Dempsey returned an interception 48 yards to bump the Naughts up to 47. St. Cloud made a final move to score on the next kick off, returning the ball 96 yards at the end of the third, which closed out all scoring.

Quarterback Raheeme Dumas went 10 for 11, throwing 3 touchdown passes with no interception. The Naughts had 332 yards of offense, Bacon lead receivers with 5 catches for 133 yards. Cunningham led the team with 42 yard rushing yards on 14 carries. “It’s an honor to be running the ball at Lakeland and I owe all of the stats to our o-line. It’s great to be running behind such a big, hardworking group of guys that always get the job done.” Cunningham said. The offensive and defensive lines controlled the line of scrimmage all night. The defense had five sacks and pressured St. Clouds quarterback all night.

The Naughts host Tenoroc High School next week at Bryant Stadium.