Dominico Spataro threw for four touchdowns and ran for one Saturday afternoon to lead Lakeland to a 41-12, season-opening victory over host Lake-Lehman.
The game, a rematch of last season’s District 2 Class 3A football championship game that Lakeland won, 14-11, was postponed the night before because of lightning.
The Chiefs struck quickly, scoring 1:19 into the game on a 9-yard pass to Lacota Dippre.
Spataro, who surpassed 200 yards passing in the game, hit Dippre with two touchdown passes along with Jon Seamans and Kevin Snyder with one each.
The 21-yard pass to Seamans made it 14-0 before the midway point in the first quarter.
Lake-Lehman used a 12-yard touchdown run by Cole Morio to cut the deficit to 14-6 in the second quarter.
Spataro’s touchdown run with 44 seconds left in the second quarter gave the Chiefs a 21-6 halftime lead.
Spataro opened the second-half scoring with a 47-yard pass to Snyder, then found Dippre again in the fourth quarter.
Lake-Lehman’s Landon Schuckers, in the third quarter, and Lakeland’s Jaron Bullick, in the fourth quarter, also had touchdown runs.
