Looking to pick up a bounce back win after last week's loss to Milton, the Lanier Longhorns defeated the Johns Creek Gladiators on Thursday 52-0, improving to 5-3 overall, and 2-2 in the Georgia High School Association Class 5A, Region 7 standings.
"Huge for our guys to have a confidence boost. I mean last week, we did not play well. There's no question about that," Lanier head coach, Tyler Maloof, said of the Longhorns playing up to their standards in Thursday's win in comparison to their 40-7 loss to Milton last week.
"I know we played a really good team, but really proud of our guys for locking back in, having a great week of practice and coming out and executing," Maloof said of the Longhorns establishing control of the game on both ends of the field from their opening possession.
The Longhorns offense would score on their first possession, needing just five plays to cap their opening drive with a Keyon Stemmons rushing touchdown, taking a 7-0 lead following the extra point. After their defense forced a Johns Creek three and out, the Longhorns would need just four plays on the ensuing possession to score once again as Stemmons would rush for his second touchdown of the night and the Longhorns taking a 14-0 lead.
Lanier's next two possession would see junior quarterback, Dominic Larocca go to the air and connect with Caleb Beebe and Ronin Watson for his two touchdown passes which would extended the Longhorns lead to 28-0 in the first quarter. Both Stemmons and Larocca would add rushing touchdowns as Lanier would go on to pick up the 52-0 win.
"We just have to keep getting better and we've got a really good group, but if we start worrying about what other people are doing, that's when bad things happen, so as long as we can continue to focus on us and continue to get us better each and everyday and things one play at a time, focus on the details, we're going to continue to have success," Maloof added.