The Lakeland High School football team moved to 0-2 after a tough home loss against Indian River High School Friday night.

Lakeland was unable to get on the scoreboard with a 41-0 loss. Indian River immediately got things started by returning the opening kickoff for a touchdown. In the opening quarter, the Cavs were unable to get much going offensively, as they were down 14-0.

At the end of the first, both teams were playing hot potato with the football. Lakeland forced an Indian River turnover and then the Braves forced a Lakeland turnover on the following possession. Lakeland forced three turnovers but was unable to score off of them, as they went into the half down 20-0.

In the second half, the Braves continued to pile on their lead, which eventually put the game out of reach for Lakeland.

“That was a rough one,” Coach Kevin Knight said. “We can’t dwell on it. We got our butts kicked. Now we have to watch film and get ready for what’s next. We have to get it going better on offense. But the negative outweighed the positive for us offensively.”

At 0-2, Lakeland will have to quickly turn its focus to cross-town rival Nansemond River High School. Knight is all but certain that more motivation will be needed as the two rivals meet with each other. Lakeland doesn’t feel pressure about the possibility of going 0-3, but the team knows that’s not where they want to be.

“We are going into a hostile environment,” Knight said. “We have to have a focused week this week. They had a lot of success over there last year. For us, you certainly don’t want to go 0-3 with the district we are in. So we want to be focused and execute.”