Piners down Howell to keep their playoff hopes alive Face Freehold Township on Friday

Piners down Howell to keep their playoff hopes alive
Face Freehold Township on Friday

Sparked by the play of its defense and special teams, the Lakewood High School football team won its second consecutive game Saturday with a convincing 26-7 victory over visiting Howell High School in a Shore Conference Constitution Division game.

With the win, the Piners improve to 3-3 overall and 3-3 in the Shore Conference. Lakewood squares off against Freehold Township 7 p.m. Friday.

Freehold Township is coming off a lopsided, 59-12 loss to defending Shore Conference and state champion Jackson.

"I think that Freehold is a real good team despite being beat by Jackson," said Lakewood coach Dave Ozierowitz. "Anytime you can beat Brick Township soundly, the way they did earlier in the season, you have a good football team. I just think they ran into a Jackson team that is in a class by itself. It’s going to take a monumental effort on our part to go in there and knock them off.

"But as long as we go there and give the effort and play with passion, anything can happen. We’re 3-3 right now and fighting for a playoff berth.

A win there would help us obtain that goal of extending our season into the playoffs."

Against Howell, the Piners got a pair of big defensive plays in the first quarter to stake them to an early 12-0 lead.

Twice Lakewood blocked Howell punts and returned them for touchdowns.

Howell was punting from its own end zone when Lakewood senior lineman Terrance Bergstrom got just enough of the ball to block it.

The Piners then got a lucky bounce as J.R. Smith scooped up the loose ball and raced in from seven yards out to give Lakewood a 6-0 lead with less than eight minutes remaining in the quarter.

The Lakewood defense delivered again on Howell’s next possession.

Again it was Bergstrom who blocked the punt, and Marcus Worthy fell on the ball in the end zone for the second TD and 12-0 lead.

"I didn’t foresee us playing that well defensively going into the game," Ozierowitz admitted. "We’ve made a few tactical changes in the last few weeks and it seems they’ve been paying off. We’ve worked real hard in practice to improve our defense in the last couple of weeks. We had been giving up way too many big plays. Tonight we were able to stay away from that."

The Piners would take a two-touchdown cushion into the fourth quarter, but Howell cut the deficit to 12-7 on Romel Nolan’s four year TD run.

Late in the fourth quarter the Piners defense intercepted a pair of passes and returned them for touchdowns to seal Howell’s fate.

Bergstrom picked off a halfback option pass and raced 33 yards untouched for a TD.

Following quarterback Andrew Nelson’s two-point conversion run, Lakewood built a 20-7 lead.

Smith intercepted a pass as time was expiring and ran it back 35 yards for Lakewood’s final score.

"Both Bergstrom and Smith were all over the place for us tonight," Ozierowitz said. "They both had tremendous games, but it takes a team effort to win any game. I just thought our defense was outstanding. We pretty much dominated the line of scrimmage and forced their offense to do things they weren’t used to doing."

There is still of plenty of time for the Piners to earn a playoff berth. Ozierowitz praised his squad’s mettle following a shaky opening to the season.

"I think these last two games say a lot about the kind of kids we have here at Lakewood," Ozierowitz said. "I think we’ve shown a lot of character to get off the deck at 1-3 to win the last two games. We’ve beaten two good teams in the last two weeks."