Miscues helped bring the Cavaliers’ impressive postseason to an end on Friday night.

Seasoned by a demanding Southeastern District regular season schedule, Lakeland High School’s No. 6-seeded football team made win-loss records seem irrelevant last week, topping the No. 3 seed to advance.

The Cavs took on No. 2 Poquoson High School in Friday’s 3A East regional quarterfinal. They held the Islanders early but could not respond offensively and ultimately fell 28-0.

“Too many mistakes, way too many mistakes, way too many penalties, and you just can’t win a game like that, and that’s what happened to us,” Lakeland coach Kevin Knight said.

The Cavaliers failed to capitalize on a golden opportunity at the outset of the game. Poquoson got the ball and fumbled on the first play from scrimmage.

Lakeland recovered the ball at the Islanders’ 34-yard line but could not turn the big play into points, later punting the ball back.

Poquoson used a mixture of running and passing to get to the Cavs’ eight-yard line, then passed for the score. Lakeland blocked the extra point attempt to keep the score at 6-0 and blunt the Islanders’ momentum.

But on the ensuing drive, the Cavaliers turned the ball over on downs. Poquoson drove the ball into the Cavs’ red zone, but Lakeland came up with a big defensive stand, stuffing the Islanders on fourth and goal at the two-yard line.

Cavs junior running back Damontra Milteer made a nice run to give his team some cushion between the line of scrimmage and its own end zone. But shortly thereafter, Lakeland fumbled, leading to a mad scramble for the ball that reached the end zone and concluded in a Poquoson touchdown.

After a successful two-point conversion, the Islanders led 14-0, which was the score at halftime.

“The first half, our defense, I think we played pretty well,” Knight said. “Defense held them to six points in the first half.”

In the final two quarters of play, Knight noted he and his team tried to establish its passing game.

“The first half, we thought we could try to run the ball,” he said. “We got a little success here and there. We were getting good looks with the pass game, we just didn’t make enough plays.”

Poquoson made it 21-0 with 9:01 to go in the third quarter after a 37-yard touchdown run. It concluded the game’s scoring later that quarter with a two-yard scoring run set up by a 40-yard pass.

The Cavaliers finished the season with a 3-9 record.

“This was a very interesting year,” said Knight, a first-year head football coach. “I had fun with these guys, but I’m proud of what I got here. I’ve got a young, young football team. I’ve probably got the youngest football team in our conference. And we’re going to stay up on that, we’re going build up that, and our goal — we’re going to bring a championship home.”