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.
Lakewood got back to winning ways in the Moore League football opener on Friday night by beating visiting Compton 57-0.
The one-sided contest had a running clock that started in the second quarter. It continued through the second half until the game was ended early with about eight minutes on the clock because a Compton player’s injury required an ambulance be called. The referees and coaches agreed to call the game after the ambulance arrived. Before leaving the field, the teams prayed together next to the Compton player while he received treatment from paramedics.
“You never want to see a game end like this and obviously our thoughts and prayers are with Compton and that player that went down,” Lakewood coach Justin Utupo said.
The Lancers (3-2, 1-0) started the season with a pair of wins before consecutive disappointing losses to Edison and Mayfair. This game came at a perfect time for them to get right.
“We wanted to find our rhythm,” Utupo said. “Obviously it’s tough to start the season fast and then struggle the last couple of weeks. This was the game for us to get clicking in all three phases and I felt like we did.”
Lakewood quarterback Kade Casillas completed 14 of his 17 pass attempts for 188 yards and five touchdowns. He also ran one in while tight end Caleb Tafua had three catches and a pair of touchdowns. Cecil Xavier Smith also had two scores on 19 and 40 yard receptions. Lancers running back Nytrell Miller scored touchdowns of 23 and 15 yards on his first two rushes of the night.
Despite the impressive statistics, Casillas knows there’s work to be done with the Long Beach Poly game looming next week.
“There’s still mistakes,” Casillas said. “We had some penalties, fumbles and celebrating for no reason. We have to clean that up and be mentally locked in. We talk about it all the time.”
Lakewood’s stingy defense was led by Soloalofa Lepaga-ili and his five tackles for loss. The Lancers only allowed Compton to get a pair of first downs on non-penalties. Nasir Jenkins also had an interception for Lakewood.
“We really worked on Compton this week instead of focusing on ourselves,” Lepaga-ili said. “We worked on one game at a time instead of focusing ahead. I hope this starts our flow to get us back to where we know we can be.”
After a muffed kickoff pinned Compton deep on the first possession of the game, Damion Avalon blocked a punt for a Lakewood safety and 2-0 lead. The Lancers failed to score on its first drive, but then scored on the rest of them.
Casillas hit Xavier Smith on a 19-yard touchdown to make it 9-0, and then after another blocked punt by Lakewood’s Rovana Tufugafale, Casillas took it in himself for an 8-yard score that made it 16-0 at the end of the first quarter.
Lakewood scored four times in the second quarter to start the running clock, and led 44-0 at halftime.
During the break between the third and fourth quarters, Lakewood took time to honor 11-year old Camila Nunez. She is the sister of Lakewood sophomore kicker Xavier Nunez, and is a AT/RT brain tumor survivor. She was diagnosed when she was eight-months old and went through chemotherapy, three stem cell transplants and additional radiation. The treatment caused paralysis on the left side of her face and her vocal cords. Camila learned to walk and talk again and has been in remission for 10 years.
“It was awesome for her to have the spotlight like that in front of everybody,” Nunez said of his younger sister. “Obviously emotions are high. Just seeing my little sister with that smile and her pom poms. That’s her dream, she wanted to be a cheerleader. I’m very excited for her.”
Lakewood travels to face Poly next week while Compton (2-3, 0-1) hosts Cabrillo.
