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 football was in a bad way when Justin Utupo took over in 2021 as the sixth head coach in a decade, but the Lancers alum got his team back in the postseason for the third consecutive season.
Lakewood is in Division 5 and will hit the road to Valencia to take on the Vikings, who are the 6-4 champions of the Foothill League.
“They’re a fundamentally sound, well-coached team,” said Utupo.
The Vikings haven’t lost a game since Sep. 13 as they’ve gone a perfect 6-0 through their league. Brian Bonner leads the Vikings on the ground with 27 touchdowns and 120 yards per game, while junior QB Brady Bretthauer has thrown for 21 touchdowns.
The Lancers (6-4, 4-2) clinched third place in the Moore League and the automatic playoff birth with a dormant 44-7 win over Wilson on Friday night.
“I felt a good game coming,” said Lakewood quarterback Kade Casillas, who was fired up to get another chance in the playoffs after a first-round loss last year. “Last year for me starting, I led us to the playoffs and then we lost in the first game. I just use that as fuel.”
Lakewood hosted the Division 8 championship in 2022 but lost to Northwood. The Lancers have a very similar season this year. They stumbled out of the gate in 2022, losing four of their first five games, but turned to the running game on offense and high-pressure on defense to finish strong. This season, Lakewood was derailed early by disappointing losses to Edison and rival Mayfair before rallying in league play by relying on that same identity.
Quarterback Kade Casillas went over 2,000 yards passing thanks to an efficient performance against Wilson, and has 23 touchdown passes with just two interceptions. The junior has also rushed for 538 yards and five touchdowns on just 41 carries.
Senior running back Jojo Apisala made his return against Wilson just a few weeks after being taken off the field in an ambulance, and is averaging 7.7 yards per carry with seven touchdowns.
Casillas has done a great job spreading the ball around to Cecil Xavier Smith, Caleb Tafua and Kenny Niumataevalu who all have over 500 yards receiving and at least five touchdowns.
Junior linebacker Kaelib Verduzco leads the Lakewood defense with over seven tackles per game, and the Lancers secondary has been dominant in all six wins this year. Junior defensive back Nasir Jenkins has a team-high three interceptions and six different players have picks. Senior defensive lineman Rovana Tufugafale and Soloalofa Lepaga-ili have combined for over 15 quarterback hurries.
