The Lakeland High School football team had two weeks to prepare for Friday night’s home opener against the Indian River High School Braves, and Cavaliers head coach Bryan Potts was preaching the importance of attending to the little details.

Trailing by four with 3:10 to go in the game, Lakeland held possession of the ball, 1st-and-goal on the Braves’ 4-yard line. Then it happened.

“It came down to the very end, and we didn’t do the little things right again,” Potts said.

The Cavaliers had a bad snap that suddenly made it second down and 30 yards to go.

Potts said, “We never recovered from that.”

An incomplete pass followed, and then on fourth down, an interception, leading to the Braves’ 17-13 victory.

Indian River ran the ball for most of the night, and took a 10-0 lead early. Then, Lakeland went to work in the second quarter.

Senior running back Curtis Rouse scored to make it 10-6, and then junior running back Ja’Juan Walker caught a touchdown pass from junior quarterback Miles Goodman, giving Lakeland a 13-10 lead at halftime.

Potts said the team was confident at this point. “Everything was working, we felt like we were doing enough to get in good position, but we knew we had to do more in the second half.”

But Indian River was the only team that did more offensively, scoring in the third quarter off a 12-yard run.

In the loss, the Cavaliers generated 258 yards on the ground, and 228 of them came from Rouse, off of 12 carries.

Goodman had eight completions for 73 yards.

It does not get easier from here for Lakeland (0-3, 0-2) as it travels next week to play Oscar Smith High School.