It won’t count when Lakeland and district foe Deep Creek meet on the gridiron in two weeks, but for a team that went winless last season a win in a scrimmage felt pretty good as Lakeland beat Princess Anne 33-14 Friday morning at Cavalier Park.

Suffolk’s Cavaliers scored against Virginia Beach’s Cavaliers on five of six possessions, with Lakeland showing impressive big plays through the air and on the ground.

Meanwhile, Lakeland’s defense looked stronger as the scrimmage moved on. Princess Anne scored with its first two drives. From there, Lakeland ended almost as many plays in Princess Anne’s backfield as not.

Lakeland head coach Glenwood Ferebee wanted his players finishing the scrimmage with confidence while realizing everything they still need to work hard on.

“The guys were excited to be out and playing, so some guys were forgetting the techniques they’ve been taught to do. We’ll be able to show them the film from today and correct it,” Ferebee said.

A couple penalties hurt Lakeland’s first chance with the ball. One flag brought back a 70-yard pass play from Zach Super to Raekwon Johnson for a touchdown.

Nonetheless, Super, a transfer from King’s Fork to Lakeland who’s moved into the first-string quarterback role for the Cavaliers, went 6-for-6 through the air for 96 yards on the opening possession.

Super hit Antonio Jefferson on a wide receiver screen and Jefferson covered 34 yards for a touchdown.

The Cavaliers kept connecting for big plays, with a different player showing what he can do each time.

“We saw some new guys show some really good things today,” Ferebee said.

“It’s a real good surprise. We have only four seniors. We’re still young, so it was really positive. It’s a sign of building an actual program,” Ferebee said.

Lakeland’s second touchdown came out of nowhere. Anaquan Peterson caught a middle screen, seemed to be bottled up a couple times before sprinting away for an 85-yard touchdown play.

Johnson, Lakeland’s big, bruising running back out of the team’s mostly-shotgun offense, showed his power and speed on a 70-yard touchdown. Johnson went up the middle, ran over a Princess Anne safety 20 yards downfield and was gone from there.

Deonte Demiel made the most of one of his two rushes in the closing minutes of the fourth period, going for a 65-yard touchdown run, a play that took cutting back across nearly the whole width of the field and dragging a defender five yards to reach the goal line.

On the defensive side, Lakeland’s big plays added up toward the end of the day’s action. Along Lakeland’s defensive line, Marche Everett had three tackles for loss and two sacks, Chris Rogers made two sacks and Craig Taylor had three tackles for loss.

The Cavaliers will scrimmage against Lake Taylor on Thursday evening in Norfolk. Lakeland hosts Deep Creek for the season opener and district opener on Friday, Sept. 2.