The Lancers won their first District playoff game against the Mehlville Panthers 42-21. Despite the favorable matchup for the Lancers, the game was no blowout.

Lafayette had another slow start, giving up a long touchdown drive to Mehlville after the Lancers offense stalled to start the game. However, for the rest of the game it was all Lafayette. After the initial Mehlville score, the offense took 87 seconds on the clock to score again, courtesy of a 14 yard Ryan Novak scramble, and the Lancers continued a relentless scoring attack all the way throughout the game. Also after the initial score, the Lancers went on a 42-7 run, only to give up seven more points with the backups and third-stringers in with nine seconds left in the game.

The offense, as mentioned, did quite well after stalling on their first drive. There were no turnovers, and both quarterbacks completed more than half of their passes. The run game, while still good enough to win the game, struggled compared to some other performances, highlighted by their 3.88 yards per attempt.

The defense ended up playing well overall. They gave up a long opening drive and a long touchdown run midway through the second quarter, but were near flawless outside those two occasions. The score still ended up making the game look closer than it was because of the mentioned last second, garbage time touchdown.

The next game is against rival Eureka. The Wildcats have a 9-1 record, but the only loss came at the hands of the Lancers last month in a 14-7 rainy battle. This time around, the Lancers are still at home but will still have to focus hard on stopping Hassan Haskins again. Since that game, Eureka has acclimated to backup quarterback Tyler Kennedy and have been gaining momentum on offense, evidenced by their last two opponents, whom they outscored 98-6.

However, Eureka’s momentum doesn’t faze senior wide receiver Marquis Yarbrough.

“In my opinion, it really doesn’t matter who they have at quarterback or what kind of connection they have with their quarterback. At the end of the day, we’re trying to take home the W. They can have Eli Manning back there, but we’re going to try our best and do what we need to do to come together and take home the victory,” Yarbrough said.

The game is on Friday Oct. 28 at home. Because it is a District level game, passes will not be permitted. The game will start at 7 p.m.