By JAMIE WILLIAMS
Special to the News-Sun
AVON PARK - Lake Placid put a damper on the Avon Park Homecoming festivities with a stunning 33-6 victory on the gridiron Friday night.
"We played hard tonight," said Lake Placid head coach Jason Holden. "We got some breaks tonight and the ball bounced our way a couple of times."
They did not bounce that way early on as Lake Placid found themselves on the Avon Park five-yard line after Robert Walton completed a 32 yard pass to Truknow Johnson and then ran the ball himself for another 12 yards.
On first and goal from the 5, Walton nearly lost the ball, but was able to recover it.
On third and goal from the two, he fumbled again with Avon Park's Josh Jones recovering the ball to stop the Lake Placid threat.
The Dragons would get the ball back a few minutes later after forcing a Red Devil punt.
After being sacked on the first play for an eight-yard loss, Johnson caught his second pass of the game - a 40-yarder from Walton that he took to the house for an early 6-0 lead.
Lake Placid got the ball back early in the second quarter with great field position when Keplet Charite intercepted an Avon Park pass at the Avon Park 40 yard line.
The Dragons put together an eight-play drive that ended with Walton throwing his second touchdown pass of the game to Foster Walker in the left corner of the end zone.
With the extra point, Lake Placid went into the half with a 13-0 lead.
Lake Placid held the ball for five minutes to start the second half, but were forced to punt when the drive stalled at midfield.
The punt pinned the Devils back on their 10 yard line, and three plays later a Dragon defender stripped the Avon Park running back of the ball and recovered it on the one.
From there Eldon McKenzie bulled it in to expand Lake Placid's lead to 20-0.
Avon Park's offense showed a spark towards the end of the third quarter as John Mason threw a 28-yard pass to Damon Braswell to put them on Lake Placid's 17 and got the homecoming crowd fired up.
Anticipation soon faded, however, as Green Dragon Ricky Miller intercepted a Mason pass at the goal line to end the scoring threat.
Miller would then catch a 41-yard pass from Walton to put Lake Placid on Avon Park's 27 as the third quarter ended.
Miller would end the drive early in the fourth quarter as he caught Walton's third touchdown pass of the day from six yards out to give Lake Placid a commanding 26-0 lead.
The Devils caught a break midway through the fourth as they forced Lake Placid to punt the ball.
On the low snap, the punter's knee touched the ground, giving Avon Park the ball on Lake Placid's 23-yard line.
The Devil offense then took advantage as Mason threw on a mini post route that resulted in a touchdown.
Lake Placid responded on their next possession, driving 80 yards on eight straight running plays.
The time-eating drive would culminate on a 21-yard run around the right side by Walker.
With the extra point, the scoring was complete for the night as Lake Placid took the 33-6 win.
Avon Park's running game started out great as Tyler Johnson put up 26 yards on five carries before injuring his shoulder.
After that, Avon Park ran a negative 8 yards on 11 carries.
Avon Park freshman quarterback John Mason was 9 of 28 in passing for 95 yards and a touchdown, but also threw three interceptions.
Lake Placid on the other hand was able to rack up 143 yards on the ground led by Marquavian Copeland with 57 yard on 6 carries and McKenzie added another 51 yards on 8 carries.
Coming into his own in his junior year in quarterback Robert Walton who completed 9 of 16 passes for 178 yard and 3 touchdowns with only one interception.
Walton stated that he is feeling more comfortable in the position and that his receivers and offensive line did a great job for him.
With any chances of playoffs for Avon Park wiped away in the loss after dropping to 2-6 for the season and 0-3 in the district, Avon Park head coach Lee Brown stated that they will be using the last three games of the year to prepare for next year and the future of the program.
"Basically," said Brown, "the next three games will be an audition for next year as we bring up some junior varsity."
Avon Park will be traveling to Sarasota this coming Friday to face district opponent Booker.
Lake Placid, who improve their record to 2-5 for the season and 1-2 in the district, will be hosting the Clewiston Tigers, also a district opponent.
Sunday, October 14, 2012 - www.newssun.com/SUN-10-14-12-APLPFB