The Linganore High School (LHS) Lancers played the Westminster Owls for their first home game of 2022, with starting quarterback junior Christian Petruzzello and long-time head coach Rick Conner.

Before the game, LHS sophomore middle linebacker Jason Copone shared his thoughts on the teams morale heading into the game. “Team morale is very good,” he said “We work together [as a team] very well.”

Copone believes the defense is the strongest part of their team.”Our defensive team will win us a lot of games,” he said.

Lancers scoring Recap:

The first home game of the season gets off to a rocky start when the Lancers fumble the ball on the first drive and Andrew Moxley gets hit for negative yardage. By halftime, the Lancers are down 34-14. Lancers had 54-yard touchdown run and a forced fumble by defensive tackle Joel Hopkins. Although the fumble was recovered by linebacker junior Carter Neal, this effort was not enough to overcome the 20-point deficit.

In their comeback effort, the Lancers scored two more touchdowns. Petruzzello scrambled into the endzone from the 31-yard line. Then, Linganore’s defense had another shining moment: defensive back Kyle Gardner picked off a pass for a pick six.

However, the Owls maintained their lead with a 35-yard field goal, and by the end of the third quarter, they scored another touchdown. The game ended with a loss for the Lancers; the final score was 28-44.

Post game, Conner and Petruzzello commented about the loss and their hopes for the coming season.

As Petruzello said, the plan was to “Just go in and win.”

Both quarterback and coach shared the same opinion of the game: their offense and defense played well, but Westminster came out strong and dominated the first quarter, which allowed them to build a strong lead.

Conner said, “Westminster played better than they had all year.” He also said that both teams “had moments that they played well. We just didn’t play well for 48 minutes.”

Both Petruzello and Conner believe that with more time to grow they would win against Westminster.

Conner said he hopes to help the players grow in their skill sets and win the next game on Friday, Sept. 16 against Walkersville High School.

They have high hopes for the future of the season. “If we get the two-and-one [record to start the season], I think that can get [our team] rolling,” Petruzello said.