Tough Sledding From the Start for Herndon

Herndon head coach Joe Sheaffer was wary of his team's ability to keep up with the overall team speed of South Lakes.

During a rain soaked game Sheaffer's ominous feelings proved right, and Herndon had to give up its stranglehold on the Baron Cameron Bowl Trophy for the first time since 2002, losing to South Lakes 43-0.

"Right now I don't see anything that I like what we're doing," Sheaffer said. "That was a really bad matchup. Those kids (at South Lakes) are all terrific and I knew it would be a tough matchup."

It was ugly from the start for the Hornets.

South Lakes recovered a blocked punt at the Herndon 16-yard line and scored on the next play on a halfback pass from Ja'Juan Jones to Darius Smith.

Then Herndon muffed the ensuing kickoff and South Lakes recovered, cashing in on the turnover with a 5-yard touchdown run by Jones to take a 14-0 lead only four minutes into the game.

Down 21-0 with just three seconds left in the first-half, it unthinkably got worse for Herndon. Smith took a toss sweep 44 yards to the house to give the Seahawks a commanding 29-0 lead at halftime..

"We've been struggling in the secondary as is," Sheaffer said. "We had two bad things happen to us early and that put us in a bad position."

In the second-half, South Lakes wide receiver Sean Price scored on a 65-yard touchdown run. The Seahawks capped the night off on a 16-yard touchdown pass from Rashaan Jones to Smith.

The lone bright spot for Herndon was the power running of senior fullback Ronnie Cooke. Cooke routinely dragged tacklers, but the Hornets were stymied three times inside the South Lakes red zone during the game.

"Our offense is a grinding offense," Sheaffer said. "We just didn't have the capability to open up. When you can't do that, you can't win games."

The 1-2 Hornets take on perennial power Robinson Friday at 7:30 p.m. in Burke.