The Hunting Hills Lightning put on a dominating performance against the Notre Dame Cougars.
The Lightning would go on to win the game 32-6, after putting the game away early in the first half.
“We were coming off a bye week and so were they, so you worry you might have some rust early on,” said Lightning Coach Kyle Sedgwick. “We wanted to make sure we came out fast and I thought we did that.”
Lightning back Jordan Lenius started off the game at the 4:03 mark of the first quarter with an 18-yard run. Lenius followed his first scoring play with a 31-yard catch, which put the Lightning up 14-0 going into the second quarter.
The second quarter was punctuated with a one yard running touchdown by Lightning quarterback Brandon Rees. The score was tough to take for Notre Dame after a face-masking penalty on third down – resulting in a first and goal situation or Hunting Hills.
“We got lucky with the first and goal on the one,” Sedgwick said.
The Cougars were threatening near the end of the second quarter before a untimely fumble on the five yard line. The Lightning went into second half up 20-0.
The Lightning started off the second half with Luc Lukalu running in a five yard touchdown against a rattled Notre Dame defense bringing the game to 27-0.
The Lightning followed the score up with an interception. The Cougars quickly followed up with a fumble recovery – followed by another interception by the Lighting. In the fourth turnover of four possessions, the Lighting fumbled the ball once again.
The Cougars capitalized on the confusion with their first score of the game on a 15-yard run by Blake Coe, bringing the score to 27-6 Hunting Hills.
“When you play these night games as the season goes on, the ball is going to get slick,” Sedgwick said. “If we want to have success in the playoffs and get to provincials and have success there – we can’t be doing that.”
The Lighting added a field goal to close the third quarter at 30-6.
Hunting Hills added a safety to bring the game to its final score of 32-6.
Lightning back Lukalu finished the game with 109 yards rushing on 10 carries and the Lightning finished with 263 total offensive yards.
With the win, the Lightning moved to 3-0 to take first in the division. The Cougars fell to 1-2.
Sedgwick was pleased his squad came away with the win but was disappointed in his team for taking too many penalties.
“That is going to hurt us in this league because all these teams we are playing are going to get better every week,” he said.
