Lakeland Christian Fights Through Delays to Top Cardinal Mooney, 20-17
Tue. October 09, 2012 at 12:14 a.m. | By Mike Cobb
BY MIKE COBB
LEDGER CORRESPONDENT
LAKELAND | For Lakeland Christian and Sarasota Cardinal Mooney, it was tough waiting three days to finally get their game in.
For LCS, the wait was worth it. In a game postponed from Friday night by lightning, Lakeland Christian held off Cardinal Mooney 20-17 in the Class 3A, District 6 opener for both teams before 1,083 at LCS' Viking Stadium.
The start of the game was delayed again by lightning for an hour Monday night.
"It was just hard keeping our focus (through the delay)," LCS coach Wayne Peace said. "I'm really proud of the guys."
LCS quarterback Christian Alexander threw for 237 yards with touchdown passes of 81 and 39 yards, Jordan White had eight catches for 129 yards and Rafeal Pressley ran 19 times for 94 yards.
Alexander hit an 81-yard touchdown pass to White in the second quarter, and Grady Sharpe nailed field goals of 42 and 32 yards to give LCS a 13-10 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
That's when the Vikings went to a ball-control passing attack using up 5:40 on a 10-play scoring drive.
"It was so important," Alexander said of the long drive. "We knew what we needed to and we did it."
Alexander completed 6 of 7 passes for 79 yards on the drive including a 39-yard TD pass to Brad Peace to give the Vikings a 20-10 lead.
"We had to eat some clock, our guys were tired," Peace said. "We have a lot of guys playing offense, they're over there playing defense, too."
They needed the cushion.
After Cardinal Mooney's Demardre Patterson scored on a 59-yard run with 5:01 left, the Vikings (5-1, 1-0) were able to run off the next 4:31 before punting with 28 seconds left.
Pressley ran seven times for 27 yards helping the Vikings get two big first downs.
"I felt great, the team felt great," Pressley said. "We wanted to win this game. We waited too long."
Cardinal Mooney is now 3-3 overall and 0-1 in 3A-6.
Lakeland Christian is off this Friday. The Vikings play at Fort Meade on Oct. 19 in another Class 3A-6 game.
Cardinal Mooney 0 7 3 7 — 17
Lakeland Christian 0 10 3 7 — 20
Second Quarter
LCS — Jordan White 81 pass from Christian Alexander (Grady Sharpe kick), 11:19
CM — Reese Vita 1 run (Blake Young kick), 5:56
LCS — Grady Sharpe 42 field goal, 1:59
Third Quarter
CM — Blake Young 19 field goal, 4:26
LCS — Grady Sharpe 32 field goal, 2:26
Fourth Quarter
LCS — Brad Peace 39 pass from Christian Alexander (Grady Sharpe kick), 6:01
CM — Demardre Patterson 59 run (Blake Young kick), 5:01
CM | LCS
First downs 13 12
Rushes/Yards 35/137 23/106
Passing 11-16-0 13-18-0
Passing Yards 107 237
Total Yards 244 343
Fumbles/Lost 4/2 3/1
Punts/avg. 3/36.0 3/24.7
Penalties/Yards 4/28 11/82
Records 3-3 5-1
Individual Leaders
Rushing: CM — Demardre Patterson 16-138, 1 TD; LCS — Rafael Pressley 19-94.
Passing: CM — Reese Vita 11-16-0 107; LCS — Christian Alexander 13-16-0 237 2 TD.
Receiving: CM — Elijah Toussaint 5-33; LCS — Jordan White 8-129 1 TD, Brad Peace 3-76 1 TD
