An emotional night for Lake Park
The emotions ran the gamut at Neuqua Valley on Friday night as the Wildcats closed the regular season with an Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division contest against visiting Lake Park, so much so that the actual score of the home team's 48-20 victory seemed an afterthought.
Euphoria reigned on one side as Neuqua celebrated its sixth of the season, which officially puts the Wildcats (6-3, 4-2) in the Class 8A playoffs for the first time since the 2007 season.
"Coming out from a loss last week (at Bartlett) we had the mindset of we really wanted to come out and play Wildcat football and we really did that tonight," said running back Trent Snyder, who paced the offense with 167 yards rushing, all in the first half, and scoring runs of 76 and 27 yards. "We haven't had our name on the map in a while, so it feels good to be back in the playoffs."
Wildcats coach Bryan Wells seconded those feelings.
"It feels awesome; I can actually talk about it now," he said with a chuckle. "I feel good about this team, feel like we're a solid ballclub. It will be interesting to see what the draw is, but we're excited to be playing next week."
On the Lake Park side the feelings were 180 degrees different, not only because the Lancers finished a disappointing 2-7 season (2-4 in the UEC Valley), but because it was the final game for long-time coach Andy Livingston. Livingston's final tally: 17 seasons, 107 wins, 11 playoff appearances and countless lives touched.
"It's not the way I wanted to go out, but the kids played hard, which is all we wanted them to do tonight; they didn't lie down and they didn't quit," Livingston said. "I'm gonna miss Lake Park, the kids and the coaching staff we built. It's not all about winning and if it was, I would've stopped a long time ago."
The Wildcats jumped to a 14-0 lead courtesy of Jeff Samuel's 18-yard TD pass to Evan Jackson and Snyder's 76-yard scamper, which was keyed by a Jackson block.
The Lancers answered with Zach Gehant's 3-yard scoring toss to Ryan Weber, but any momentum from that score appeared to be lost when, for the second week in a row, Dillon Strack returned a kickoff for a touchdown, this time from 87 yards away. There was one last glimmer of hope for the Lancers when Gehant's 61-yard pass to fellow sophomore Dan Sommers put the ball at the Neuqua 12, but an eventual failed fourth-down play halted the scoring threat.
After that Neuqua added three more scores in the half Snyder's 27-yard run, Vai Suliafu's 5-yard burst and Dan Mendez's 14-yard TD catch from Samuel which offset Kevin Teglia's 97-yard kickoff return for Lake Park and gave the Wildcats a 41-13 lead.
Both teams added third-quarter scores, Neuqua on Suliafu's 46-yard run and Lake Park on Gehant's 44-yard hookup with Sommers.