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.
The Lakewood football season came to an end Friday night as the Lancers were unable to make a late comeback in a 38-35 defeat to Foothill in the CIF Southern Section Division 5 quarterfinals.
“Hats off to Foothill,” Lakewood coach Justin Utupo said. “They came out and were able to make big plays on our defense, but we made plays too and we talked about it at halftime – taking it possession by possession. Stop after stop. I’m proud of this team for fighting their way back.”
Looking to start on the right foot, the Lancers won the opening coin toss and elected to start on offense.
The Lancers (7-5) drove down the field with some carries from Nytrell Miller and Kade Casillas.
After a 13-yard gain from Miller, Casillas found Caleb Tafua for a 24-yard touchdown to give Lakewood a 6-0 lead with 6:44 left in the first.
Foothill responded with a balanced attack and after nice runs from Nathan Gouvion, Gino Marchetti found a streaking Nico Mancini for a 28-yard touchdown to give the Knights a 7-6 lead.
Lakewood went right back to work turning to their senior running back who took care of it himself with four carries for 44 yards and a 1-yard touchdown to put the Lancers back up 14-7 after Casillas connected with Tafua for a 2-point conversion.
The Lancers defense looked to make a big momentum swing on the next Foothill possession coming up with a goal line stop to put the Lancers offense back on the field.
However, Lakewood went 3-and-out and Foothill tied the game three drives later after Gouvon broke loose for a 28-yard touchdown to tie the game at 14 with 1:37 left.
Another stalled drive for Lakewood gave the Foothill offense the ball back with less than a minute left and the Knights went on a 75-yard drive and Marchetti connected with Mancini for the second time to take a 21-14 lead at halftime.
Foothill opened up the floodgates on their opening possession of the second half as Mancini snuck past the Lancers’ defenders and for his third touchdown of the night to take a 28-14 lead over Lakewood.
Lakewood’s offensive struggles continued as they went 3-and-out and the Knights scored on the first play of the drive with a 40-yard Gouvion run to extend the lead to 35-14 with less than 8 minutes remaining.
With their backs against the wall, the Lancers turned to Apisala who had eight carries for 70 yards on the next drive and Tafua finished the drive with a 10-yard touchdown on a pass from Casillas to cut the Knights’ lead to 35-21.
“This team never gave up,” Tafua said. “Man, I’m gonna miss these guys, man. They were some dogs, so yeah. they had that fight – that dog.”
Lakewood wasn’t done there as the defense came up with a huge fumble recovery after a snap went sailing over the head of Marchetti to give the Lancers possession from the Foothill 40-yard line.
Apisala’s second touchdown of the night was a 4-yard touchdown that cut Foothill lead to 35-28 with 8:54 remaining in the fourth quarter.
The senior running back finished the game with 183 total yards with 153 on the ground and 25 receiving and three touchdowns
Foothill stopped the 14-point run by Lakewood after Colton Thorne connected on a field goal to make it a 2-possession game with 4 minutes left.
With a short porch, Lakewood drove down the field again thanks to a big run by Apisala and Casillas found Apisala for an 18-yard touchdown to cut the lead to 38-35 with :50 seconds remaining and the Lancers had all their timeouts.
“You know – I wasn’t playing for myself,” Apisala said. “I had to put my team before myself and just do all that I could do to move us down the field and go get the points.”
Just when they needed them, the Lancers’ defense came up with a huge 3-and-out and Lakewood had the ball with 30 seconds remaining in the game.
However, after a sack, Casillas’ next two passes including a final throw to the endzone to Tafua fell short as the Lancers weren’t able to complete the comeback.
