Hawks trounce Eagles led by John Cornish’s 3 TD Night

Alden+Waddington+getting+the+play+from+the+sideline

Alden Waddington getting the play from the sideline

Liam Bradford, Sports Editor

The Lakeland Hawks dominated the West Valley Eagles friday night, 42-13. Junior running back John Cornish earned most of the spotlight from the game, scoring three touchdowns in the first half alone.

Lakeland’s offense was on fire, starting with the first drive of the game, which resulted in a John Cornish five-yard rushing touchdown. The Lakeland offense dominated their Washington opponent, acquiring 329 yards of total offense on their path to victory on Friday night.

Devon Suko commanded the elite Hawks offense throwing for 152 yards, two touchdowns, and maintaining nearly a 70% completion percentage. Aside from Cornish scoring three times, Richie Thomas and Alden Waddington each had four catches for a combined 131 yards. The senior wideout duo scored a touchdown each to go on top of Cornish’s three points out of the backfield.

Richie Thomas averaged 21 yards per reception, and Cornish averaged 6 yards per carry, despite having over 20 touches spread out across the game. Cornish had 18 carries for 106 yards and three touchdowns.

When asked about his thoughts on his insane performance, he said, “ I came into this game with a mindset of staying tough and take it back to my junior tackle days and just run the football. It’s that simple. Our offensive line balled out all night, and that led to the best game of high school so far for me personally.” Cornish also admitted that this was the best football game he has ever played in his life and that he felt that with the momentum that the team has built up over the last two games, the team is feeling good heading into their next game.

Skyler Huber shined with a season-high eight tackles on the other side of the ball while also acquiring a sack. Hutton Hegbloom had four tackles and two tackles for loss. Cody Morse also picked off West Valley with the only interception of the game for the Hawks.

Lakeland led 28-0 at halftime, but the game’s pace slowed down in the second half, with 27 points being combined between the two teams in the second half. The Hawks played an all-around great game and will look to build off their momentum after winning their second straight game to improve to 2-2.

Lakeland will play their next game at 7 pm on September 17th in St. Maries