Lakewood flips the switch on Evergreen with big second half

Evergreen went into the intermission Friday with all the momentum.

But when the Plainsmen emerged for the second half, they left their momentum in the locker room.

Shutout in the first half, Lakewood exploded for 41 unanswered points en route to a 41-17 non-league win at McKenzie Stadium.

That’s right. Evergreen led 17-0 at halftime.

And that lead came on the final play of the first half when the Plainsmen blocked a field goal attempt by Lakewood. Zyell Griffin, playing deep on the kick, grabbed the deflected ball at the 1-yard line and raced 99 yards for a touchdown as the second-quarter clock expired.

But the buzz that filled McKenzie Stadium at halftime quickly ended when Lakewood drove 57 yards on its first drive of the third quarter to answer with its first touchdown — a 6-yard pass from Jared Taylor to Landen Pruitt.

The Cougars would drive 66 yards on their next possession with Taylor running the final eight for another touchdown.

Then Taylor capped the third quarter with a 58-yard touchdown run that put Lakewood ahead 21-17.

Even though Lakewood would dominate the scoreboard and the stat sheet (430 total yards to 279), Evergreen still found itself still in the game midway through the fourth quarter.

After a promising drive stalled at the start of the quarter, Lakewood blocked Evergreen’s punt to take over at the Plainsmen 26.

But Evergreen came up with its best — and only — second-half stop when Tae Marks sacked Taylor on fourth down at the 18.

But Evergreen’s offense couldn’t get much going, and Lakewood padded its lead on Pruitt’s 2-yard run with 5:21 left, putting the Cougars up 28-17.

Lakewood added on two late touchdowns on an exhausted Plainsmen defense.

Key play

Evergreen’s night started with a bang when Carter Monda handed off to Griffin on an end-around. Griffin then handed to Jaylen Fite on a reverse and Fite pitched it back to Monda. Monda then hit Marks (there were two Evergreen receivers open deep on the play) for a 79-yard touchdown pass play on Evergreen’s first play from scrimmage.

Key players

Jared Taylor: The Lakewood quarterback a big second half on the ground, rushing for 163 of his 201 yards and three touchdowns.

Tae Marks: Marks had five catches for 105 yards for Evergreen.

LAKEWOOD 41, EVERGREEN 17

Lakewood 0 0 21 20—41

Evergreen 7 10 0 0—17

First quarter

E — Tae Marks 79 pass from Carter Monda (Ely Del-Angel kick)

Second quarter

E — Del-Angel 33 FG

E — Zyell Griffin 99 blocked field goal return (Del-Angel kick)

Third quarter

E — Landen Pruitt 6 pass from Jared Taylor (Alan Sepulveda kick)

E — Taylor 8 run (Sepulveda kick)

E — Taylor 58 run (Sepulveda kick)

Fourth quarter

E — Pruitt 2 run (Sepulveda kick)

E — Taylor 38 run (Sepulveda kick)

E — Malik Dotson 25 run (kick field)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Lakewood: Jared Taylor 20-201, Landen Pruitt 16-67; Carson Chrisman 5-21, Jackson Schultz 1-7, Malik Dotson 2-49, team 1-(-17). Evergreen: Tyvauntae Deloney 15-84, Zyell Griffin 3-14, Kyle Norton 4-8, Jonathan Simon 2-9, Carter Monda 7-(-12).

PASSING — Lakewood: Taylor 11-18-0-82. Evergreen: Monda 13-28-1-167; Simon 1-2-0-9.

RECEIVING — Lakewood: Schultz 5-33, Pruitt 3-28, Chrisman 2-14, Jakobus Seth 1-7. Evergreen: Tae Marks 5-105, Griffin 5-38, Jaylen Fite 3-24.