GRANITE FALLS — Turnovers was the name of the game for the Cougars on Oct. 2.

Lakewood turned the ball over on downs three times inside the Granite Falls’ 30-yard line, including their last drive of the game where they were stopped on the goal line.

“It was a really tough loss to take,” said Lakewood coach Dan Teeter. “When you’re that close, it’s painful. We really thought we deserved to win, but it came down to finishing drives.”

Also fumbling once and throwing an interception, the Cougars did not punt at all against the Tigers, who ran on literally every play, controlling the clock so well that Lakewood was held to just a pair of possessions the entire second half.

“Our offense was pretty confident that we could score — that hasn’t been a problem all year,” Teeter said. “Even though it can add a little pressure when you think you have to score every time you get the ball.”

The Tigers opened the game with a pair of touchdowns to take an early 14-0 lead. Quarterback Justin Lane was part of both Cougar touchdowns after, running in for a 2-yard score in the second quarter, and finding wideout Trent Melhart in the third quarter for a 9-yard TD.

Defensively, Teeter was cautiously happy with his squad’s performance, but feels it needs to do better to win against next week’s opponent, Archbishop Murphy.

“Twenty points (allowed) is an improvement over the last few weeks, but we were still taking a few wrong angles at the point of contact and wrapping up too high to miss tackles,” he said.

Teeter praised his offensive line, saying the whole group had its best game all season.

“Usually we run to the left side, which is stronger, but we were able to run on both sides getting decent gains,” he said.

Lane finished the game 14-for-22 with 164 yards for the Cougars, who drop to 2-3 overall.