Still, the Wildcats head coach stressed keeping a positive mind-set going into the regular-season finale.
After some early sluggishness, the Wildcats maintained their late-season momentum with an offensive burst in a dominant 47-6 victory at Region 3-AA foe Harlem.
“I think the biggest thing behind a game like this is not to lose your focus on what you do,” Lackey said. “We were just trying to get through tonight. We missed some spots, but that’s football. … Once we got rolling, we did what we do.”
It was the fourth consecutive win for Laney (7-3, 5-1), whose playoff opponent was yet to be determined.
Senior George Myers had a memorable final regular season game, rushing for 159 yards.
He got things going for the Wildcats with a 7-yard touchdown run on the first offensive possession.
Harlem (2-8, 1-5) countered with a 5-yard scoring run by sophomore Dontel Frails after a pair of 15-yard penalties by Laney.
However, Myers made sure that momentum was short-lived. The back returned an interception 66 yards for a score.
Later, in the second quarter, he showed off his speed on runs of 68 and 55 yards.
The first went for a touchdown, while the second advanced the ball to the Harlem 1, setting up Myers’ third rushing score.
Deondre Walker and DeMarcus Nunnally added touchdown runs of 9 and 48 yards, respectively, to give Laney a 40-6 lead at halftime.
With a running clock after halftime, Laney secured the only score of the second half just 33 seconds in on a 64-yard run by Walker.
The senior carried just five times for 102 yards to go along with Myers’ 159 yards on just nine carries.
The Wildcats averaged more than 13 yards per carry en route to a total of 330 yards.
Harlem ended the game on a high note with an interception of Andre James in the end zone. However, it came on a tough night for the offense.
The Bulldogs totaled just four first downs and 99 offensive yards. Frails had 69 of them on 22 carries.
