Indian Lake’s football team dominated host Northwestern 34-8 for the Lakers’ first victory of the season during a special Thursday night Central Buckeye Conference Mad River division game.
The Lakers are now 1-2 overall and 1-1 in the CBC Mad River, while the Warriors fall to 1-2, 1-1.
Indian Lake found the end zone early in the first quarter. Caleb Wurster fired a 37-yard yard TD pass to Kaleb Hurley with 8:47 left on the clock. Derek Cline booted the extra-point kick to put the Lakers ahead 7-0.
Northwestern’s defense delivered in the final seconds of the opening quarter. Nick Morton intercepted an Indian Lake pass and took it back 40 yards for a score with 10 seconds to go. Nathan Dewey added a two-point run to put the Warriors on top 8-7.
Indian Lake was able to take back the lead midway through the second quarter. Wurster lobbed a 22-yard touchdown pass to Lane Mefford at the 7:35 mark. The extra-point kick missed, but the Lakers still led 13-8.
Hurley stepped up again for the Lakers later in the second quarter. He picked off a Northwestern pass at the 34-yard line with 3:48 left to play in the half.
Three plays later, Wurster scrambled deep behind his own offensive line and found Hurley wide open for a 42-yard touchdown pass. That put the Lakers ahead 20-8 with 3:03 to go in the half.
The Warriors were able get into Laker territory during the final minutes of the half, but came up short of the end zone.
Most of the third quarter went scoreless until Indian Lake put together a 40-yard scoring drive in the final minutes. Elijah Slagle capped off the drive with a 4-yard touchdown run. That extended the Lakers’ lead to a 27-8 score with 39 seconds left to play in the quarter.
Indian Lake’s defense was able to keep Northwestern out of the end zone in the fourth quarter. The Lakers chewed up a solid chunk of time late in the quarter. During the drive, Slagle broke free for a 44-yard touchdown run at the 1:37 mark for the final score of the game.
For individual IL stats, see Saturday’s Examiner.
Indian Lake is back in Logan County on Friday when it hosts rival Benjamin Logan in CBC Mad River action.