Wolves score late, down Leopards 56-27

MALVERN — Utah Aitken, in his second game as Lake Hamilton’s starting quarterback, had a quiet first three quarters Friday night but a big finish.

Aitken passed 18 yards to Kanaan Williams for the first of two fourth-quarter touchdowns that helped the Wolves pull away at Claude Mann Stadium. Jacob Nichols later ran 19 yards to set the final margin at 56-27.

Malik Brewer, scoring three first-half touchdowns, and Nichols accounted for nearly 300 yards and five touchdowns.

“That’s what we want in this offense,” said Lake Hamilton head coach Tommy Gilleran. “Those guys have a good chance to be pretty good. I think Utah had a good game throwing, too. In this offense, it’s a pretty good deal for us to be able to throw. I think that he could have completed a couple more, but he had some penalties on him.”

Brewer’s touchdowns runs of 33 and 25 yards broke open a 14-14 game and Jackson Johnson’s 54-yard punt return helped set the halftime score at 35-14.

Randall Nichols scored from nine yards out to make it 42-14 before touchdowns by Demias Jimerson and Jordan Hart in a Malvern mini-rally.

Lake Hamilton’s second-quarter surge loomed large in the outcome.

“They got a couple penalties, and we got them backed up,” Gilleran said. “Overall, that kind of thing kinda helped out that quarter. We kinda got in a rhythm, and I think they backed off a little bit. When they did, we kinda pressed the pedal. I thought we got some momentum, and they were catching instead of tackling. Those adjustments we made seemed to work out better.”

Malvern coach Mike Scarbrough said his team “played pretty poorly in the first half. … probably where the game was won or lost.”

In the second half, he said, “We made a couple adjustments on defense that helped us for a little while and got a stop or two. We went down and scored a time or two. It felt like we got ourselves back in the game. His crew made another adjustment, and we just ran out of time. They did a good job.”

Said Gilleran: “Offensively, we came out firing pretty much the first half. They made some changes, and we had to counter back with some changes. Once we figured out what they were doing, we adjusted to those things and started making plays. That’s football — they make a move, we do a move, back and forth. The same thing our defense did.

Aitken completed seven of 13 passes for 94 yards. Defensively, Williams and C.J. Reynolds tallied 10 tackles apiece, and Randall Nichols recorded six.

“We’ve got to continue to learn,” Gilleran said. “This (offense) is new for these kids … They’re learning stuff and getting better every day. Part of it is a process of learning how to do it and continue to get better.”

Jimerson connected on 24 of 37 passes for 192 yards, meanwhile rushing for 103 yards on 11 carries.

“He’s a good player,” said Scarbrough. “He can play quarterback. He can throw the ball. We did a much better job tonight rolling and catching, and we were patient most of the night. We got ourselves back in the game. We just played so poorly in the first half that it was hard to overcome.”

Both teams have road games Friday, Lake Hamilton (2-0) at Bryant and Malvern (0-2) at Lakeside. Lake Hamilton 14 21 7 14 — 56 Malvern 7 7 13 0 — 27 First quarter LH — Jacob Nichols 15 run (Jackson Johnson kick), 9:52 M — Parker Freer 28 pass from Jordan Hart (Michael Cervantes kick), 6:28

LH — Malik Brewer 28 run (Johnson kick), 3:29 Second quarter M — Hart direct snap 7 run (Cervantes kick), 11:51 LH — Brewer 33 run (Johnson kick), 9:31

LH — Brewer 25 run (kick wide right), 6:33

LH — Johnson 54 punt return (Randall Nichols run), 3:01 Third quarter LH — Randall Nichols 9 run (Johnson kick), 5:02 M — Demias Jimerson 63 run (Cervantes kick), 3:31 M — Hart 3 run (kick failed), 58.7 Fourth quarter LH — Kanaan Williams 18 pass from Utah Aitken (Johnson kick), 7:55

LH — Jacob Nichols 19 run (Johnson kick), 2:34 INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS