The562’s coverage of football in 2024-25 is sponsored by The Terry Donahue Memorial California Showcase.
The562’s coverage of Lakewood Athletics is sponsored by J.P. Crawford, Class of 2013.
Two early season wins for the Lakewood football team has seen the Lancers overcome miscues and penalties to win both of them.
On Friday night, those miscues and penalties caught up to Lakewood in a 29-15 loss to Edison at home. The Chargers got a four touchdown night from running back Julius Gillick.
“(Edison) wanted it more than us,” Lakewood coach Justin Utupo said. “We had a golden opportunity to get the ball in the second half – defense came up with a big stop. We got another chance to score in the red zone to tie it up – we just didn’t execute.”
The Chargers’ (1-2) came into the game having lost their first two games by a combined two points. After both teams came up short on their opening drives, Gillick broke the game open when he took his second carry of the game for a 63-yard touchdown to give Edison an 8-0 lead.
Looking to offset Gillick, Lakewood drove down the field on the next drive with nine straight runs with running back Jojo Apisala and quarterback Kade Casillas getting in on the action. But, Lakewood was stopped short on a fourth down attempt to turn the ball over on downs.
Edison went right back to Gillick as he had four carries for 23 yards and looked to be running in for the score, but the Lakewood defense forced a fumble at the goal line that Soloalofa Lepaga-ili recovered in the end zone for the touchback.
Apisala wasted no time getting loose as the senior broke for 33 of his 104 yards on the night. He carried the ball 14 times.
Lakewood took advantage of the big run and worked down into Charger territory where Casillas found Kenny Niumataevalu for a 5-yard touchdown. The Lancers converted the 2-point conversion on a Casillas run to tie the game 8-8 with 9:07 left in the second quarter.
Much like Apisala for Lakewood, the Chargers continued to hand the ball to Gillick and he delivered with two carries for 42 yards and a 19-yard touchdown to put Edison up 15-8 with 7:03 left in the first half.
Gillick finished the night with 30 carries for 291 yards and four touchdowns.
After another Lakewood punt, Edison drove right back down the field and Gillick capped the drive with a 14-yard touchdown to put the Chargers up 22-8.
Lakewood wouldn’t have success on their next drive, but Lakewood linebacker Nasir Jenkins picked off Edison quarterback Savelio Niumata and returned it to the Chargers 27 yard line with 54 seconds left in the half.
Casillas got things going with his feet with two carries for 19 yards and then connected with Apisala for a 3-yard touchdown to make it 22-15 at halftime.
After a scoreless third quarter that included great defense and a lot of punts, Casillas was picked off at the goal line in the fourth quarter and Gillick responded with a 53-yard touchdown to put Edison up 29-15.
Casillas finished the game with 16 carries and 82 yards.
Lakewood will be on the road next week when the Lancers travel to take on Mayfair.
“We’re going to watch this film, get these things fixed and we have to be able to defend the run,” Utupo said. “On the flip side of offense – we got to take advantage of every opportunity.”
