The Lakeland High School football team went to 0-9 on the season with a 41-0 loss to Western Branch High School on Friday.

It was a tough game for Lakeland, which couldn’t get on the scoreboard for the second consecutive game.

“It was rough out there,” Coach Joe Jones said. “We felt like we had a good game plan, but with us being so young, we didn’t handle some things like we wanted to. They competed fairly well early, but they had some big breaks that hurt us.”

With the final game against Indian River High School still on the horizon, Jones sees this regular season being a stepping stone for the 2020 season. They want to be able to go into the offseason with some momentum and eyes set on taking the next step as a program next season.

“We have our eyes set on 2020,” Jones said. “December is when our 2020 begins, and we will be ready to hit the ground running. We feel like we can be in a good place, so we just have to finish strong out there.”

Lakeland is expecting to return 90 percent of its starters on both sides of the ball next season.