Dragons bury Griffins

Lake Placid tailback Caleb Jones rushed for 219 yards and scored five touchdowns, and fullback Navahri Holden scored twice to lead the Green Dragons to a 55-0 win over Gateway Charter in a Class 2B-District 6 game on Friday night.

The lopsided win improved Lake Placid to 5-4 overall and 3-2 in district play, while the loss dropped the Griffins to 0-9, 0-4.

"Our offensive line did a great job of blocking and just dominated the line of scrimmage," said second-year Green Dragon coach Jason Holden. "Gateway Charter stacked the box and brought everybody up close to the line of scrimmage and we ran toss sweeps all night. This was our last district game and it guarantees us a winning record in the district, which was one of our goals this season."

Lake Placid forced the Griffins to go three-and-out on their first possession and a shanked punt gave the Green Dragons excellent field position.

On the first play from scrimmage, Jones shook loose for a 35-yard touchdown run.

The Green Dragons defense, which stuffed the Gateway Charter offense all night, forced another three-and-out and another poor punt set Lake Placid up in Griffins territory.

This time, it took three plays to score as Jones broke free from several Griffin defenders and scampered into the end zone for a 14-0 lead midway through the first quarter.

"Our defense played an outstanding game," said Holden. "We swarmed to the ball, forced a fumble, Brandon Elder had an interception and we didn't let Gateway Charter get anything going all night."

Holden, a bruising runner who carves out yardage between the tackles, burst through the Gateway Charter line and scored on a 29-yard jaunt, giving the Green Dragons a 21-0 lead.

"We set the tone with a score on our first possession of the game and never let up," said the Green Dragons skipper. "This says a lot about our guys and the fact they didn't take Gateway Charter lightly. It was a team effort on both sides of the ball and now we have to focus on our last game of the season."

Lake Placid hosts Lemon Bay next Friday night, and a win would give the Green Dragons a winning record for the first time in 10 years.

"We're fortunate the game against Gateway Charter wasn't real physical and it gave us a chance to kind of heal up a little bit," said Coach Holden. "Lemon Bay is a real solid team that is well coached. Their kids always play hard and we're going to have to turn up the intensity in practice this week if we want to finish strong and achieve our goal of a winning record."