Nansemond River High School’s football team got its 2014 season off to a fantastic start with its 21-19 win at Grassfield High School, and junior running back Terrence Lambert played a big role in it.

He carried the ball 14 times, gaining 100 yards, including a three-yard touchdown run that gave the Warriors their first lead of the game.

Lakeland High School senior running back Jordan Stokley also received much voting support, but Lambert emerged as the Duke Automotive-Suffolk News-Herald Player of the Week.

Regarding his performance against the Grizzlies, Lambert said, “I felt really good about it,” but then was quick to deflect the acclaim. “I want to give all credit to God.”

He also praised the blocking of his offensive line for helping him reach 100 yards and expressed his gratitude to a coaching staff that entrusted him with the running responsibilities.

“I thought he played real well in that game,” Warriors coach David Coccoli said. “I think he’s coming along well.”

Lambert got his start in the sport when he was eight years old, living in Mobile, Ala., and his introduction came by way of his mother, Angela Lambert.

“‘Mom, I want to play football, but I don’t know how,’” she recalled him saying. “So I told him, ‘Well, Mom will teach you how to play football.’”

Impressed with what she saw from him in their practice together, she signed him up for a team.

It did not take long for her to see him break off a long touchdown run, featuring about 65 yards of pure running.

“For an 8-year-old to run from one end of the field across (to) the other end of the field was just amazing,” she said, noting that she and her husband, Terrence Lambert Sr., recognized his speed.

He has had another forum to develop and showcase his speed at Nansemond River in the form of the track team. He was part of the 4×400-meter relay team that won the outdoor 4A state championship earlier this year.

Asked football or track is his favorite sport, Lambert chose football. “I just love the brotherhood in it,” he said.

He alluded to the unity that comes through a group of guys working hard together, rejoicing together and enduring adversity together.

“They always are sweating or bleeding with you,” he said, thinking of training camp. “That means a lot to me.”

The win over Grassfield also meant a lot to him because it was quarterback DeShon Saunders’ last shot ever at beating the Grizzlies.

“I was really happy I was able to help him get the win for his senior year,” Lambert said, adding that the two cried tears of joy after the game.

It illustrated something else Angela Lambert described as helping make her son a good football player.

“He’s very humble, and he tries to encourage the team,” she said. “He knows that there’s no ‘I’ in team.”

Coccoli acknowledged Lambert’s character, as well, when he said he is a great kid.

“I think he’s got a bright future,” the coach said.