The Lancers played a tough game against their opening opponent Timberland, but the inconsistent play on offense late in the game cost them a close game, losing 39-32.

Timberland took the opening kickoff for a touchdown to start a 25 point unanswered scoring run all the way late into the second quarter. The Lancers were down 25-0 until they converted a trick play into a touchdown in the final seconds of the second quarter to create a shift in momentum. The halftime score was 25-7, and the Lancers would carry on their momentum and score 25 more unanswered points of their own and create a 32-25 scoreline in the fourth quarter. Unfortunately, Timberland was able to score twice and the Lancers were not able to capitalize on their following possessions and could not score back.

On offense, quarterback Ryan O’Connell threw for 240 yards along with two touchdowns and three interceptions. The bulk of the receiving came from Tommy Taylor and Marquis Yarbrough, who caught a touchdown each and had 99 and 100 receiving yards respectively. As a team, the Lancers had 118 rushing yards spread out over five players.

On defense, the team recorded five sacks and held Timberland to 86 passing yards however, Lafayette struggled to contain Timberland’s rushing attack, as they managed to rush for 270 yards as a team and scored primarily by rushing.

Senior Brett Rissman, one of the team’s leading tacklers from the game, spoke about the defensive struggles, and how to improve upon these problems.

“We just have to make good tackles because against Timberland we weren’t wrapping up and we didn’t keep our heads up while tackling. Basically, we were just executing really bad technique,” Rissman said.

However, it was the special teams and turnovers that seemed to be areas of improvement for the Lancers. They threw four interceptions as a team, had a muffed punt, a blocked punt and gave up the aforementioned kickoff return.

The Lancers take on the Hazelwood East Spartans next, a team that won their opening game 61-6 against University City. In their game, the Spartans displayed similar strengths to Timberland, as they had a total of 253 rushing yards and two long kickoff returns of 85 and 92 yards. However, compared to Timberland’s more option based offense, Hazelwood East runs a more straightforward athletic, running offense.

The game against Hazelwood East is at home on Friday, Aug. 26 at 7 p.m.