Football: Hornets blank Sailors 28-0

Lakeland's Conor Prunty may excel at the quarterback position, and on the Hornets (1-1) first offensive possession of the game against visiting Hendrick Hudson (0-2), he showed that he could shine as a running back as well.

One play after the Hornets' stifling defense forced a fumble recovery on the game's first play from scrimmage, Prunty took a pitch from the running back position, and went 27 yards for a touchdown 31 seconds into the Sept. 16 contest. That touchdown helped Lakeland get off to a great start in what turned out to be a 28-0 Hornet victory.

"We were practicing that all week," Prunty said. "It felt pretty good just to get it off my chest. I tried to run pretty hard, run north-south, instead of going side to side. I saw a cutback lane so I took it. I got some nice blocking and I scored."

Lakeland appeared that it was going to add to its lead shortly after garnering the game's first touchdown. The Hornets held Hen Hud to a three and out and after the Sailors punted, Lakeland had the ball at its own 39.

Soon it was Hen Hud's turn to cause a big turnover. Two plays into its second possession of the game, Lakeland fumbled and the Sailors recovered.

Toward the end of the opening quarter, Lakeland had another golden opportunity to score when it had the ball at the Sailor 39. However, on a second and 15, Prunty's pass on the last play of the first quarter was intercepted by Hen Hud at its own 3-yard line.

"Offensively, we need to work on moving the chains," Lakeland coach Rob Cappelli said. "We didn't do a very good job standing on our blocks. Possession was terrible on our end and we weren't able to get personnel in. We have to work on that."

Lakeland's defense though picked up the slack as it came up huge on the first play of the second quarter. That is when Zack Lenane, with the Hornet bench screaming to him to get the ball, recovered a Sailor lateral pass in the end zone for a touchdown and a 14-0 halftime lead.

The Hornet defense was led by Jack Garbowski, who had nine tackles and one sack. As a team, Lakeland's defense allowed just 32 yards and one first down.

"The defense was fantastic," Cappelli said. "I was very proud of them. Jack Garbowksi was all over the place. Paul Briggs and Gino Gonnella played well too. We played in their backfield three quarters of the game."

Prunty, who had a 62-yard punt in the second quarter, showed that he also has great defensive skills as well when he intercepted  a pass that gave Lakeland possession of the ball at the Sailor 29-yard line with 5:46 remaining in the third quarter.

"That was actually a tip," Prunty said. "I was playing over the top. It was tipped and I saw it. I got a block, ran it to the 10 but it got moved back because of a hold."

That penalty on Prunty's return didn't matter though, as four plays after his interception, Dan Eremita barreled his way through the Hen Hud defense on a 9-yard touchdown run and the Hornets led 21-0 with 3:33 to go in the third quarter.

Lakeland's Paul Briggs finished the scoring as he scored on a 3-yard run with 5:10 remaining in the contest.

The Hornets will now be gearing up for a huge game on their homecoming night,  7 p.m. Sept. 24 when they host highly regarded John Jay, who is looking to bounce back from a 35-14 loss to rival Horace Greeley.

"John Jay is an oustanding football team," Cappelli said. "They are physical, they are strong, they are athletic, they are well coached. We play like that next week, the game could be over at halftime. We know we are in for it. They have a lot of fire power. They play both sides of the ball. They are very strong defensively and they have a great offense. They can over power you, they can throw the ball, they can do anything they want. We know if we don't fix some things, it could be a very long night for us."