The Lakewood Lancers suffered an inauspicious start to the season with a 56-7 loss to visiting Camarillo on Friday night.
“First of all, they’re a really good football team,” Lakewood first-year coach Scott Meyer said of Camarillo. “It’s a program that’s won a championship and went to the semifinals last year. They know how to win, we’re teaching our guys what it takes to win right now. Our guys saw what a good football team is, and we’re gonna watch the film and learn from them.”
Camarillo scored 21 points in the first quarter thanks to a Lakewood special teams miscue and a pair of touchdowns from Camarillo running back Jesse Valenzuela. The senior collected 97 all-propose yards in the first half while quarterback James McNamara lit up the scoreboard. The senior signal caller had four touchdown passes to three different receivers in the first half while completing 12 of his 16 attempts for 213 yards.
The Lakewood offense could only muster 11 net yards of offense in the first half. Quarterback Gevani McCoy found receiver Mister Bridges for a 30-yard touchdown on the final play from scrimmage. The fourth quarter was played with a running clock.
“All we can do is get better,” Meyer said. “We’ll put on the film tomorrow and learn from it. We’ve got some young guys out there and some of the older guys have very little football experience. We just have to stay patient with these guys and get better every week.”
Lakewood visits Mayfair next Thursday for the Milk Bucket rivalry game.
