The Lakeland High School football team took its first road loss of the season Friday night.

Lakeland met with Wilson High School for what ended up being part two of last year’s meeting. Because of a lightning delay last year, both teams had to finish the game another day. The same thing happened this time around.

Lakeland traveled to Wilson Thursday, and the game went through multiple lightning delays before finally being postponed to Friday night.

At the time of the lightning delay Thursday, both teams were tied at 7. Wilson put the game away Friday with an unanswered touchdown.

It was not an ideal situation for either team, but Coach Kevin Knight refused to put the blame on the weather.

“We are not going to do that,” Knight said. “We are not going to use anything as an excuse. We had our chances, and things just didn’t go the way we wanted it to. Wilson had to go through the same thing we went through. So, we can’t blame the delays and everything else on why we lost.”

Erick Grant scored the only touchdown for the Cavs on a rush in the end zone in the second quarter on Thursday. Lakeland had possessions both days where scores were called back due to penalties.

“We have to bounce back next week and learn from this,” Knight said. “That’s all you can do. It’s tough to lose the first one of the season, but at the end of the day, there are nine more left to play. We have another chance next week to have a solid week of practice and to try to get it right again.”

Lakeland will have its home opener next week, when Indian River High School comes to visit. Knight has always been strong on defending home field, and things are no different this season.

“Indian River comes in here next week, and we have to protect the house,” he said. “We have to have a great week of preparation and get it done. We want to make sure we are always defending home field.”

Lakeland faces Indian River at 7 p.m. Friday.