The Hunting Hills Lightning rode their quick strike offence to a decisive 32-6 win over the Notre Dame Cougars in high school football action Friday night.
Under the bright lights at MEGlobal Athletic Park, Lighting wideout Jordan Lenius scored two majors and quarterback Brandon Rees rushed in another through the opening 24 minutes to put the game out of reach early.
“We wanted to make sure we came out fast and I thought we did that. (Notre Dame) played hard. That’s the league champion and there’s a lot of guys from their roster last year,” Lightning head coach Kyle Sedgwick said.
“We knew it was going to be tough. It took us a little while to get going but I pleased with our defence. We just had some turnovers and penalties in the first half killed us… We won the turnover battle but we lost the penalty battle.”
Haidan Brown forced a fumble early in the first quarter and the Lightning turned that into six just two plays later on a 18-yard run by Lenius. Rees followed that up when he found Lenius in the second on a 31-yard score. The Hunting Hills veteran pivot added a TD of his on a one-yard keeper midway through the second.
Rees finished the night with 64 yards passing on four of 10 completions.
The third quarter was highlighted by four straight turnovers, two interceptions by the Lightning and a fumble by each team. The first score of the frame was a five-yard carry by Hunting Hills running back Luke Lukalu who had a monster game on the ground.
The grade 10 running back ended the game with 109 yards on just 10 carries. In total the Lightning ran 33 times for 232 yards.
“We’re a team that leans a little more on the pass because of veteran receivers and quarterback. He’s learning. He’s got great vision and great lateral movement. When he scored the touchdown, the move he made looked like a grade 12 move,” Sedgwick said.
“We’re working him in… we’ve got a few backs that ran well tonight. I was happy with Shaye Mccutcheon and Denver Worsley ran hard at the end. We’ll work at it and we have to be able to work the run in more like we used to years ago.”
Late in the third the Cougars finally responded with some pressure as tailback Blake Coe punched in a 15-yard run.
The Lightning defence also played strong in the victory, holding the Cougars to just 90 yards of offence.
Next week the undefeated Lightning (3-0) take on Lindsay Thurber, Sept. 28 and the Cougars will play Lacombe (2-1) on Sept. 29.