Lake Highlands football trounced Irving Nimitz 63-14 on Thursday at Wildcat-Ram Stadium. The game, which was moved up from Friday due to inclement weather, was dominated by the Wildcats from start to finish.
Lake Highlands makes a tackle. Photography by Mike Duhon.
“It started in our preparation on Saturday of just studying our opponent and how they break the huddle, how they run to the line, how they’re gonna snap the ball quick,” coach Cory Campbell said. “We had to transition that to our scout teams. It’s a very difficult picture to duplicate and our scout teams did a great job this week.”
The Vikings provided Lake Highlands (7-1, 5-0 District 7-6A) with a scare when senior running back Jevon Woolfolk shook off his tackler en route to a 62-yard touchdown up the right sideline to bring Nimitz within 14-7 with 3:07 left in the first quarter. Despite the play, the Wildcats were able to take control of the rest of the game.
“I think once we kind of settled into the game and started kind of figuring out exactly what the game called for, we played quite a bit better,” Campbell said.
Woolfolk would score again on a 54-yard dash with 3:54 left in the game to make the score 63-14, but it would prove to be too late for the Vikings (0-8, 0-5) to mount a comeback.
By halftime, Lake Highlands led 49-7 and never looked back. At that point, Wildcat quarterback Chuck Smith was 8-8 passing for 148 yards and two touchdowns. In an effort to preserve the lead, the Lake Highlands passing game slowed down in the second half, opting to run the ball and burn the clock.
Conrad Ince and Mason Spangler were beneficiaries of Smith’s hot start, each hauling in a first-half touchdown. Ince received quite the setup when Smith delivered a perfect back-shoulder pass that dropped right into his arms to give the Wildcats a 42-7 lead with 5:50 left in the first half.
On Spangler’s score, he took advantage of a broken Vikings’ defense and found himself wide open in the end zone. Smith delivered the 26-yard strike and gave Lake Highlands a 49-7 lead heading into the half.
Franklon Evans, the Wildcats’ emergent offensive threat, also got in on the action. He opened scoring on an untouched 19-yard touchdown to make it 7-0, Lake Highlands, with 5:35 remaining in the first.
None other than Christian Rhodes, the Wildcats’ top back and SMU commit, led the rushing attack. He finished the evening with 90 yards and two touchdowns on just four carries. The earlier of his scores came on Rhodes’ first touch, when he broke open up the middle of the field for a 61-yard touchdown to give Lake Highlands a 21-7 lead with 2:11 in the opening quarter.
Then, with 5:58 left in the second, Rhodes punched in another score after a Spangler reception set the Wildcats up at the one-yard line. With the lead safe, Rhodes was able to sit in the second half, clearing the way for Kobie Moreland.
Moreland had two touchdowns in the second half. A 12-yard rush with 8:53 left in the third gave Moreland his first score of the night. He followed that up with a 29-yard touchdown on the ground, making a man miss as he stepped into the end zone to bring Lake Highlands’ lead to 63-7 with just 5:51 left in the contest.
The Wildcats, ranked No. 16 in the most recent SportsDay Dallas-area team rankings, also leaned on their defense, which scored two touchdowns in the first half alone.
Jeremiah Jones was at the heart of both of those plays. On the first, the football popped out of Woolfolk’s arms right into the hands of Jones, who returned the fumble 20 yards to give Lake Highlands a 14-0 lead with 4:18 remaining in the first quarter.
Then, with 9:39 left in the second quarter, Jones stopped a Vikings rushing attempt when he wrestled the ball away from the offense and returned it 78 yards down the field to extend the Wildcats’ lead to 28-7.
“(Jones) has been in our program for the last four years,” Campbell said. “A lot of hard work and it’s fun to see him be able to get a strip or fall on a fumble and take it to the house.”
Nimitz will have another shot at its first win against Pearce (2-4, 1-3) at 7 p.m. next Thursday in Irving.
Lake Highlands will return to action versus Richardson (5-2, 4-1) at 7 p.m. next Friday at Eagle-Mustang Stadium.
“The opportunity Friday night is to be able to win a district title,” Campbell said, “and that’s really, really special. But we’re not going to deviate from our preparation. We’re gonna go to work tomorrow and try to be 1-0, and then we’re gonna do the same thing on Saturday and Sunday and then let us carry it into the week.”
“We’re excited for the opportunity against a great opponent.”
