Lakeland Christian shows full offensive potential in second half vs. Fort Meade

LAKELAND — Lakeland Christian and Fort Meade indeed were locked in a classic small school football battle, especially after the Vikings scored in the closing seconds of the first half to tie the score going into halftime.

LCS then unleashed its complete offense in the second half and slowed Fort Meade’s high-powered passing game to pull away for a 42-21 victory on Friday night at Viking Stadium.

Although Fort Meade finished with nearly 400 yards of offense, the Miners made numerous mistakes. They had nine 5-yard penalties, mostly for delay of game or false starts that twice turned fourth-and-short into fourth-and-long. The first time, Fort Meade was going for it then punted after the penalty. The second time, the penalty was inside the 10 and turned fourth-and-4 into fourth-and-9 on Fort Meade’s opening drive of the second half.

Lakeland Christian was leading by a touchdown at that point, stopped Fort Meade, took over at its 10 and went on a 90-yard scoring drove to go up by two touchdowns after Killian O’Neal’s touchdown run.

Back-to-back touchdown plays of more than 70 yards were called back but the Vikings eventually scored on the drive.

LCS shows off complete offense

Sophomore quarterback Brody Brenneman missed last week’s game with a rolled ankle and did not start against the Miners. With DJ Howard at the control, the Vikings played even with Fort Meade in the first half. Howard threw a clutch touchdown pass to tie the score, 14-14, with three seconds left in the half.

Brenneman took over at halftime and completed all six of his passes for 92 yards and led an offense that piled up 240 yards in the second half. He showed how dangerous LCS’s offense can be by adding his passing to the team’s already-dominant running game.

Lakeland Christian coach Danny Williams said Brenneman will start next week.

LCS’s offensive line dominates

From the start, Lakeland Christian’s offensive line was winning the battle in the trenches. The Vikings rushed for 148 yards in the first half and finished with 302 for the game. Josh Bellamy rushed for 155 yards and three touchdowns, and Killian O’Neal rushed for 95 yards and two touchdowns.

"That's the key of our team," Williams said. "We're big up front. We got some good running backs. So that's definitely the strength offensively, and they had some big boys. I think as the game went on, we knew they were going both ways. We just got to let them worn down.

Bright spot for Fort Meade

Fort Meade showed it still has work to do if it wants to be considered a dangerous playoff team, as the Miners hurt themselves with drive-killing penalties along with a couple of questionable decisions to go for it on fourth down.

However, Fort Meade coach Maurice Russell said he wanted to get the ground game going and the Miners showed some potential in that area. Jean Jones nearly rushed for 100 yards as he finished with 95 yards on 12 carries but had four carries in the second half.

Sophomore quarterback Jaden McCutchen showed potential to be a dangerous runner. He had had a 21-yard gain early but fumbled, then later bulled his way into the end zone on a 6-yard run.

Mixed results for Fort Meade’s passing

McCutchen finished the game with respectable looking numbers as he was 21-for-31 for 275 yards. However, in the second half he and his receivers often weren’t on the same page. At least three times he overthrew receivers, expecting them to run go routes when they stopped short, and once he threw into an empty area with no receivers close. There also was a touchdown pass that was dropped.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Lakeland Christian shows full offensive potential in second half vs. Fort Meade