On November 1, the Linganore High School (LHS) Varsity football team competed in the 27th annual Interstate 70 (I-70) game versus the Urbana High School (UHS) Hawks. The Lancers maintained the I-70 trophy for the second year in a row, winning the game with the final score 49-14.
The Hawks had won the coin toss and had chosen to defer. This led the Lancers to receive the kickoff starting the game. Urbana started the game off strong with a Pick-6 to end off the first quarter leading the Lancers 14-0.
Starting off the second quarter, things weren’t looking the best for the Lancers, but hope was not lost yet. With 5:30 left in the half, junior Bradley Matthews scored on a 72 yard touchdown. This resulted in an extra point being secured by junior Ayden Marsh, which shortened the Hawks lead 7-14. Matthews again ran the ball in for yet another touchdown with an extra point being secured by Marsh to end the half, the Lancers and the Hawks tied 14-14.
Junior Alex Tortolani explained how he knew that they did not play to the best capacity that they could have, but how he had hoped that Urbana was not going to win.
“We didn’t play great in the first quarter, and we all knew that. Going into the second, I knew we weren’t out of this game. We know we were better than this team,” said Tortolani.
The Lancers are known to be a second half team, leading them to not start off the strongest but coming back even stronger during the second half, relating back to the game against Middletown where the Lancers were down at half time to the Knights.
The Hawks started with the ball on the Lancers 35 yardline to start off the third quarter. Shortly after, senior Noah Orndorff collected the fumble to take over for the Lancers on their own 49 yardline. The crowd and student section was cheering on the Lancers, and they were hopeful for another touchdown to take the upper hand on the Hawks.
Senior Shawn Pelovitz manages to find and complete a pass to both junior Jeffrey Ray and Matthews to score, leading the ending score of the third quarter 35-14. This caused things to look much brighter for the Lancers than before.
Fourth quarter was not much different for the Lancers finding Matthews twice for passes leading to a Lancer touchdown. The Lancer to win the 27th annual I-70 game 49-14.
Junior kicker Nicholas Riley talked about how he fit into this team, along with how he enjoys being a part of the Lancers football team.
“I enjoy playing this sport, doing the team activities, and being a part of the team,” said Riley.
The Lancers play next in the first round of playoffs on November 7,at 6:00pm at the LHS stadium Make sure to come out and support your Lancers!
