The Lakeland Cavaliers stormed into the 2012 season with championship intentions, destroying Deep Creek 49-0 on Thursday night at the Nathan T. Hardee Stadium in Chesapeake.

The Cavs dominated both sides of the ball, and Cavaliers head coach Glenwood Ferebee knew what made the difference.

“Just playing fast,” he said. “Like I said, we’re a fast football team… on defense and offense. We just have to play full speed all the time, and I think we’ll fare pretty well.”

The Lakeland defense proved to be impenetrable, holding the host team to 29 yards of total offense and a single first down. The first down came with less than five minutes in the game on a Cavs pass-interference penalty.

Raekwon Johnson, the 2011 SED Co-Offensive Player of the Year, picked up where he had left off last year, running for 61 yards on eight carries and scoring the first two touchdowns of the game.

Senior quarterback Zach Super went 11-15 for 136 yards and two touchdown passes. One of his standout plays came near the end of the first quarter. He extended the play multiple times, evading the pass rush left and right until he found a wide-open Antonio Jefferson for a 22-yard touchdown pass.

Senior wide receiver Michael Piersawl made a 9-yard TD catch, and junior running back Curtis Rouse scored the last touchdown of the game on a 35-yard jaunt.

The defense created four turnovers.

“The two fumbles, the two interceptions broke the game open for us,” Ferebee said.

Some of these turnovers did not require the Cavaliers offense to come on the field.

With the score 21-0 at the start of the second quarter, Lakeland forced a fumble and the following scramble for possession trailed back several yards until Cavs senior defensive back Derrick Edghill snatched the ball in the end zone.

About four and half minutes later, senior defensive end Tyler McCaw intercepted a batted ball and returned it for a pick six.

Especially remarkable was the play of freshman linebacker Jaquan Yulee who seemed like he was everywhere at times.

“He don’t play like a freshman, does he?” Ferebee said with a chuckle. “He flies to the football. When he comes, he comes with an attitude.”

Ferebee figures that though Yulee is already 6’2 and 225 pounds, he is not done growing.

“I’ve been speaking about him since he first came out,” Ferebee said. “He’s going to be a special player, long as he keeps his head on straight, stays in his book, he might be one of the best.”

The Cavaliers already had a 35-0 lead by halftime, and some of the starters were pulled by the fourth quarter to give second-stringers some playing time.

Ferebee was pleased with the overall performance of his team, but he saw room for improvement.

“I feel pretty good,” he said. “We got some things that we need to work on. Regardless of the score, we want to play with perfection. Our goal is to get to a championship and right now, some of the mistakes that we are making, we won’t get there.”

Lakeland hosts Hickory next Friday at 7 p.m.