Lakeland showed promise against the 2011 AAA division 6 state champions, but miscues broke the game apart and allowed visiting Oscar Smith to ride a strong offense to a 38-9 win on Friday night.

“We gave it away,” Cavaliers head coach Glenwood Ferebee said. “I mean, we played a good game. Mental mistakes killed us, we were in the red zone three times, didn’t convert off of penalties, bad snaps. So, our effort was there enough to win, but the mental mistakes killed us where we couldn’t put points on the board.”

Oscar Smith began the scoring with a two-yard rushing touchdown halfway through the first quarter, but it only took Lakeland about 13 seconds to respond.

Senior wide receiver Antonio Jefferson, who it turns out did not have a concussion, took a pass from senior quarterback Zach Super and converted it for a 77-yard touchdown on Lakeland’s first play from scrimmage.

“It felt pretty good,” Jefferson said. “All I needed was that one play, because I was still kind of worried about my head.”

What was thought to be a concussion turned out to be something less severe.

“Just was knocked out like a boxing match,” he said.

Lakeland did not convert the extra point.

The Tigers responded at the beginning of the second with another touchdown and then got the ball right back when Jefferson fumbled the ball away to begin the Cavaliers’ second drive. They turned it into a 23-yard field goal and the score was 17-6 at the halftime.

In the first drive of the second half, senior wide receiver Darnell McMillian completed a 62-yard catch-and-run from Super to plant the Cavs at the Tigers’ 10-yard line. Penalties proceeded to back Lakeland up to an incredible third and goal from the Oscar Smith 47-yard line.

An incomplete pass appeared to end the drive, but a roughing the passer call against the Tigers gave Lakeland a new set of downs on Oscar Smith’s 32-yard line. Sophomore kicker Austin Brown converted a 38-yard field goal for Lakeland’s final score of the game.

In the second half, the teams traded possessions, but at the end of the third quarter, the Tigers began scoring again.

Oscar Smith senior quarterback Deshawn Blow went 17 for 24 for 175 yards and two touchdown passes while sophomore running back Deshawn McClease ran 13 times for 79 yards and two scores.

“It was probably about 50, 60 percent of the team that won the state champion,” Ferebee said, “and you can tell because they don’t ever stop. They don’t ever quit. They’re mentally strong.”

Jefferson had five catches for 173 yards and Super threw 14 passes, completing nine of them for 191 yards and one touchdown, with one interception.

“The first half, everything was going fine,” Super said. “Everything was clicking. I was hitting passes and then the second half, we stumbled a little bit. That’s just a part of playing the game.”

“Last week, we were missing some guys,” Ferebee said. “This week, we had everybody healthy and it showed. We played up and down the field with these guys. We just got to eliminate the mental errors.”

Next Friday, Lakeland (3-2, 2-2) visits cross-town rival King’s Fork (4-1, 3-1).