LAKELAND — Lakeland Christian spotted Berkeley Prep a 21-point lead and made an effort to rally, often overcoming its own mistakes. The Vikings, however, came up short in their first Class 3A, District 4 game.
Berkeley Prep sacked quarterback Christian Alexander for a 3-yard loss with about 20 seconds remaining in Thursday’s game to preserve its 33-28.
"You can't spot a team 21 points, and we did," Lakeland Christian coach Wayne Peace said.
There weren't a lot of defensive stops in the game, but the Vikings (3-1, 0-1) made a big one late in the fourth quarter.
After Dominic McNish scored on a 2-yard run with about 5:22 to play that cut Berkeley Prep's lead to 33-28, the Vikings got the Bucs to go three and out.
RB Marlow returned the ensuing punt to the Bucs' 46, and the Vikings moved the ball to the 13 with the help of two runs by Alexander and a 14-yard pass to Larenz Deshazor.
LCS had first and 10 at the 13 but on the next four plays, Alexander was sacked twice, scrambled for 2 yards and threw an incompletion on a dropped pass, a common occurrence.
"We had nine dropped passes in the game," Peace said. "We haven't had nine dropped passes in the our first three games combined."
The teams were nearly evenly matched. Berkeley Prep finished with 329 yards of total offense to 326 yards by LCS.
Bucs quarterback Brad Mayes completed 9-of-14 passes for 198 yards. Alexander completed 21-of-28 passes for 253 yards.
Lakeland Christian couldn't stop the Bucs early.
Berkeley Prep took the opening drive 72 yards on 13 plays with Gordon Stetson scoring its first touchdown from 1 yard out.
The Bucs then used big plays, a 42-yard run by Addison Grams and a Mayes 47-yard pass to Stetson to set up touchdowns on their next two possessions.
Lakeland Christian regrouped behind the passing of Alexander to score two second-quarter touchdowns to get back in the game at the half.
The Vikings had the chance to tie the score before Berkeley Prep got the ball in the third quarter, but two dropped passes on their opening possession forced a punt, and the Bucs drove to take a 27-14 lead.