LAYTON — If preseason games are designed to work the bugs out, then the Lancers have a lot of things pestering them after their season opener.
Plagued by penalties and turnovers at inopportune times, Layton dropped a hard-fought 25-20 decision to Hunter on Friday evening.
“We did not have good ball security tonight,” said Layton coach Jim Batchelor. “And the penalties were horrendous.”
“There were mistakes that kept them in the game, but what we saw, we can fix. It was a good first game to see where we’re at at what we need to do,” Batchelor said.
An interception early in the third quarter gave Hunter possession at the Lancer 22 and Hyrum Purcell powered in from the 10 yard line with 8:24 remaining to tie the game at 13.
Purcell scored the go-ahead touchdown from 26 yards out at the 1:30 mark of the stanza and the Wolverines added what proved to be the winning score midway through the fourth period on a two-yard run by Nathan Uhi.
Layton was led by three touchdown passes from quarterback Hunter Evans to wide receiver Marcus Kemp, including a slick 37-yarder down the right sideine on the final play of the first half.
“We thought we had a good match up with Marcus on their corner and we took what they were giving us,” Batchelor said.
The Lancers passed the pigskin a lot in the initial half and came out in the second half with a determination to run the ball with a more balanced offense, but went scoreless until Evans connected with Kemp for their third touchdown, a 16-yarder with 5:27 remaining to close out the scoring.
“We tried to run in the third quarter, but it didn’t work out as well as we had hoped,” Batchelor said. “So we went back to passing it. There’s no panic. We’ll be better next time.”
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