STORY BY MATT SIMON
James Voorhies made it clear that the Lakewood football team was all business heading into its matchup against Millikan on Friday night.
Voorhies made his presence felt on his first touch of the night, a 93-yard touchdown sprint, that gave the Lancers a lead with 6:45 left in the first quarter.
The senior finished the night with 22 carries for 218 yards as the Lancers beat Millikan 26-20 to take home the Hamilton trophy for the first time in two years.
“I told everyone in the locker room just execute and compete,” Voorhies said. “And that’s what we did, we worked and just kept competing.”
Ajae Gravelly powered the Rams (2-5,1-3) on the next drive as he rushed for 71 yards including a 30-yard touchdown to cut Lakewood’s lead to 7-6 with 3:12 left in the first quarter.
After exchanging punts, Qeanu Campbell-Caldwell gave the Rams a 13-7 lead when he connected with Andrew Gonzales on a 30-yard touchdown.
From there things went sideways for the Rams as the Lancers answers right back when junior quarterback Gevani McCoy connected with Mister Bridges for a 60-yard touchdown with 13.5 seconds left.
The Lancers (4-3, 3-0) weren’t done there as they forced a fumble and Ernie Cartagena scooped it and scored to give Lakewood a 20-13 as time expired heading into halftime.
“We’ve come a long way,” Lakewood coach Scott Meyer said. “Our players, our coaches, we’ve taken some lumps against some good teams. But everyone, we’re kind of clicking right now. We have some tough games ahead of us.
After forcing Lakewood to punt on the opening drive of the second half, Gravelly scored his second touchdown of the night to tie the game at 20 with 7:13 remaining in the game. Gravelly finished the night with 110 yards on 13 carries.
McCoy scored the game-winning touchdown on a 12-yard run with 7:13 left in the fourth quarter.
Lakewood will have a bye next week while Millikan will host Compton.
