Citadel Excerpt: The CIF playoffs witnessed the Lancers fighting for a berth again this year.

At the beginning of the season, after a year's absence from CIF, it seemed as though Lakewood fans would have quite a wait before finding their team in that kind of competition again.

The traditional "slow start" is discouraging to some people, but the tremendous rallying power of Coach John Ford's varsity squad came through again.

Setting up the preseason against some of the toughest competition in this part of the state, Big Red had to fight back from three opening losses.

In the opener against Westminster, quarterback Pete Tereschuk nearly pushed his team up from a sixteen point deficit to win, but the Lions held on to their lead in the last minutes for a final score of 19-17.

There was almost and identical occurance against Mater Dei as the Monarchs manged to outscore the Lancers by three points, 19-16.

As league time approached, it was obvious in the playing of the team that they were coming back at full speed. After discarding the El Rancho Dons just a week before league started, the momentum attained was enough to force the Lancers through the rest of the season with only one loss to their co-champions in the Moore League, Long Beach Poly.

Meeting the Panthers on their Moore League return, the Red Machine demolished the illusions of glory at Jordan, consistently streaking downfield for a 34-0 score.

Nine different members of the team carried the ball during the game, including Dave Stewart, normally a blocking back, who made 70 yards that night.

Soon the defense made its showing breaking out against Compton's Tarbabes with well-timed fumble recoveries by Craig Billington and Ed Ahumada, and a pass interception by Bill Goodman. The strength of the defensive squad snared the Lancers this 16-14 win.

Big Red then fought its homecoming battle, shutting out the Rams and causing quite an upset for Millikan. This left only Wilson between the Lancers and the Moore League crown.

That obstacle was cleated in the last harrowing moments of a muddy, low scoring game. The 6-3 score was made by Paul Goodman, the Lancers' CIF First Team kicker, and preserved by Bill Goodman with the recovery of a Bruin fumble in the end zone!

Then came the final step, CIF playoffs. The Lancers were picked as underdogs in their first game, but once again the defense proved to be the deciding factor spearheaded by Tim Miltenburger, Dale Kuhse, Rick Miller and Bill Goodman. The displacement of St. Francis by a 17-10 score sent Coach Ford's Lancer squad into the second round of competition.

During this competition, Big Red ran up against this year's CIF finalist, Western, which posessed one of the toughest goal line defenses around. Being stopped on the one yard line for four downs with five minutes to go in the fourth quarter, the Lancers lost out on a possible tie score.

Still, Big Red had proven that all of the fighting spirit and quality of play that had been traditional at Lakewood was still present.