After a winless campaign last fall, Lakeland stunned district foe Deep Creek over and over again throughout the first half of the new football season for a 41-0 halftime lead and a 41-0 victory Friday night at Cavalier Park.

The Cavaliers raced down the field unchecked, scoring touchdowns on six of their first seven times with the ball.

New quarterback Zach Super, in his first varsity start, completed his first 13 pass attempts on the night. It was 34-0 Cavaliers by the time Super tossed an incompletion. Super finished the game completing 17-of-20 passes for 387 yards and four touchdowns.

For only a few of repeated big plays in the opening half, Lakeland moved 57 yards to the Hornet 3 in the first two plays from scrimmage, Raekwon Johnson rushed 39 yards to cap a 3-play, 85-yard drive to make it 28-0 Cavs and the last Lakeland snap of the half was Deonte Demiel catching a screen pass and sprinting 87 yards for a touchdown.

“We’ve been telling the guys all summer, we can be a big play team with all the speed we can put on the field,” said Lakeland head coach Glenwood Ferebee.

“We felt it was coming but we had to put it together. We did that with how we executed in the first half,” Ferebee said.

The first Cavalier play of the night was a touchdown pass from Super to Anaquan Peterson until a flag against Lakeland brought it back.

Super fired to Derrick Edghill cutting toward the right sideline. Edghill broke through a tackle and turned a short gain into a 42-yard play to the Hornet 2.

Johnson carried in on the next play for a Cavalier lead 0:48 into the game.

The Cavs got the ball back just as quickly. After the Lakeland line stuffed Hornet running plays to bring up 3rd-and-13, Edghill intercepted a floating pass giving the Cavs the ball on their own 36.

On the longest Cavalier scoring drive of the half, six plays later Super tossed to Johnson for a 5-yard touchdown reception.

“To the defense, we said, give us the opportunity to have the ball. Our offense can’t score without the ball, if (Deep Creek) has it for long drives,” Ferebee said.

“We have a lot of guys playing both ways,” Ferebee said. “We tell the guys to look at the total amount of plays. If you’re on the field for only three defensive plays, then we can score in three offensive plays, you really weren’t out there a lot.”

As soon as Lakeland got the ball back from a Hornet punt, Super flipped a shovel pass to Anaquan Peterson and the Cavalier state champ track athlete raced 41 yards to the Hornet 25.

On the next snap Super found Antonio Jefferson alone behind all the Hornet defenders for a 25-yard touchdown pass and a 21-0 lead.

The Cavs kept blanking the Hornets and lighting up the scoreboard. Johnson’s second touchdown run came with 11:10 to go in the second quarter.

Lakeland’s defense caused a fumble, with Jefferson recovering on the Deep Creek 12, and Super connected with Jefferson for a 12-yard touchdown for a 34-0 Cavalier lead 1:13 later.

The short screen and 87-yard sprint by Demiel added up to 367 Lakeland passing yards in the half.

Neither side scored with a running clock throughout the second half, something the Cavaliers had been on the other side of numerous times throughout a 12-game losing streak entering the season opener.

“We’ll keep pressing on them. We’ll still turn it up on them in practice. They owe me on Monday because of how we played in the second half,” Ferebee said.

The Cavalier defense held the Hornets to zero passing yards and 17 rushing yards. Lineman Craig Taylor led the way against the Hornet running game, tallying four tackles for loss and a recovered fumble.

Peterson led the Cavalier receivers with five catches for 122 yards. Johnson totaled 106 yards rushing and receiving. Jefferson had four catches for 55 yards.

“We know Zach’s very accurate. We knew about getting him time to throw, so we’ve been focusing on pass blocking. When he has time, we know he can put it there,” Ferebee said.