Lakeland High School was involved in a very close football game for much of the night, but host Great Bridge High School used a safety in the second half to springboard to a 29-12 victory on Friday night.

“We’ve got some young guys who don’t have a lot of game experience, and they’re being put in positions where they’re just going to have to gain experience to learn how to overcome certain adverse situations,” Cavaliers head coach Bryan Potts said.

The score was 0-0 until midway in the third quarter when the Wildcats blocked a Lakeland punt, resulting in a safety. Soon thereafter, they built the lead to 9-0.

But Lakeland continued to show exhilarating flashes of offensive potential. On the ensuing kickoff, freshman wide receiver Alajuwun Langston took the ball 90 yards for a touchdown.

Great Bridge put together a drive to make it 16-6, but then the Cavs responded when junior quarterback Miles Goodman connected with junior running back Ja’Juan Walker for a 70-yard scoring toss.

Then, turnovers killed Lakeland down the stretch. One interception was returned for a touchdown and another set up the Wildcats’ final score of the game.

Goodman again showed promise, but ended up with three picks.

“The interceptions kind of hurt our chances of coming back, but again we showed that we can move the ball at will when we put all phases of the game together,” Potts said. “We’ve just got to do a better job of getting these guys in good positions and try to take advantage of the strengths that we have.”