CEDAR PARK — Lake Belton entered Friday night at 3-1 in the District 8-5A-I standings and knew it had a challenge against Cedar Park with potential playoff implications at stake. With theBroncos facing a tough road test, it was the Timberwolves who capitalized on opportunities en route to a 49-21 win.

Cedar Park’s Trae Hill led the Timberwolves (5-3, 4-1) offensively with 232 yards rushing and four touchdowns on 31 carries. The senior running back began the night averaging 146.6 yards per game and had 170 by halftime.

“I think at the end of the day, we’ve got to be able to stop the run,” Lake head coach Brian Cope said. “I think we’ve got to get better on some stuff. I think offensively, we’ve got to control what we can control.”

The Broncos (4-4, 3-2) trailed 35-21 at halftime and didn’t score in the second half. Lake’s offense was led by sophomore quarterback Jessiah James, who took most of the snaps. He was 10-of-19 passing for 249 yards and a pair of touchdown throws with three interceptions and a rushing touchdown.

Junior wide receiver Zion Harness had five catches for 170 yards and two TDs.

“I thought we had a good first half,” Cope said. “We had too many penalties and so we’ve got to make sure we fix those. That hurt us and put us in some tough deals and so we weren’t opportunistic when it came time.”

Lake was penalized 14 times for 126 yards.

“We’ve got to continue to grow. They’ve got a lot of football left to play,” Cope said. “We’ve got to get better in our position and answer the opportunities we have.”

The Timberwolves opened the scoring with an 11-play, 70-yard drive that was capped with Hill’s 5-yard run for his first score of the night with 8:25 left in the opening quarter. Lake’s opening drive went 20 yards but the Broncos failed to convert on fourth down, giving Cedar Park the ball on its 43-yard line.

The Timberwolves needed just four plays to move the 57 yards, highlighted by Hill’s runs of 9 and 41 yards before his 2-yard score. David Cooper ran for the 2-point conversion after an offside penalty negated a blocked PAT.

Trailing by 15, the Broncos took over on their 24 but a false start backed them up to the 19. One play later, James found Harness for an 81-yard strike to put Lake on the board and cut the gap to 15-7 with 3:40 left in the opening period.

Cedar Park responded with a 14-play drive that went 75 yards and was capped with Hill’s 1-yard TD run for his third score of the night that put Cedar Park up 22-7 with 10:25 left in the first half.

Lake went three-and-out on its ensuing possession, and the Timberwolves set up shop at their 37. Six play later, Cooper ran it in from 13 yards to extend Cedar Park’s edge to 29-7 with 5:47 remaining in the half.

Lake responded with a 75-yard drive that ended with a 46-yard pass from James to Harness for the duo’s second scoring connection, trimming the margin to 29-14 with just less than 6 minutes before the break.

Both teams scored once more before intermission. Cedar Park got a 46-yard TD pass from Cooper to a wide-open Wesley Hebert, but a failed PAT left the Timberwolves up 35-14. Lake used a nine-play march and found the end zone on James’ 1-yard sneak to put the halftime deficit at 35-21.

Cedar Park tacked on two scores in the second half, with one in each quarter. The first came on a 21-yard strike from Cooper to Hebert for their second TD connection on the night. The last was on a 3-yard run by Hill for his fourth TD that settled the final tally.

dtaylor@tdtnews.com

CEDAR PARK 49, LAKE BELTON 21

Lake Belton 7 14 0 0 — 21

Cedar Park 15 20 8 6 — 49

CP — Trae Hill 5 run (Jack Giradeau kick)

CP — Hill 2 run (David Cooper run)

LB — Zion Harness 81 pass from Jessiah James (Long Chuong kick)

CP — Hill 1 run (Giradeau kick)

CP — Cooper 13 run (Giradeau kick)

LB — Harness 46 pass from James (Chuong kick)

CP — Wesley Hebert 46 pass from Cooper (kick failed)

LB — James 1 run (Chuong kick)

CP — Hebert 21 pass from Cooper (Lucas Viloria run)

CP — Hill 3 run (kick failed)

TEAM STATISTICS

LB CP

First downs 18 23

Rushes-yards 29-173 51-334

Passing yards 263 182

Comp.-Att.-Int. 12-24-3 13-17-1

Punts-average 2-43 0-00.0

Fumbles-lost 2-0 0-0

Penalties-yards 14-121 5-18

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Lake Belton: Harness 3-60, Zyien Dupree 14-59, James 6-41, Peters 2-12, Logan Winkler 1-2, AJ Alexander 3-(-1); Cedar Park: Hill 31-232, Cooper 12-56, Viloria 7-41, Jamal Porter 1-5.

PASSING — Lake Belton: James 10-21-3-249, Reese Rosenbaum 2-3-0-14; Cedar Park: Cooper 11-14-1-149, Ethan Carlson 2-3-0-33.

RECEIVING — Lake Belton: Harness 5-170, Peters 5-66, Luke Phillips 2-27; Cedar Park: Hebert 2-67, Brayden Jahns 5-43, Kysen Pham 1-29, Jamal Porter 2-21, Brendan Baker 1-15, Julian Williams 1-4, Hill 1-3.

dtaylor@tdtnews.com