Lambert

Jacob Smith Forsyth County News Lambert running back Harrison Peyton, left, and wide receiver Kojo Antwi hope to lead a balanced offense, while also starting in the Longhorns’ defensive backfield.

Lambert sports tough, experienced offensive line heading into 2021

By David Roberts

droberts@forsythnews.com

Lambert didn’t wait long to start preparing for the 2021 season.

The Longhorns finished 5-5 – their best mark since 2016 – but head coach Tommy Watson didn’t spend any time celebrating.

“We basically started a week after we played West Forsyth in November and started our offseason program,” Watson said. “I’ll tell you what we did. I’ve got a strength coach at Lambert that I brought with me from Lowndes. I told Coach [Curtis] Mattair, I said, ‘Look here. We’re finna to pick this weight room up and we’re gonna dump it on top of them. The ones that come out are gonna be Longhorns.”

Watson is quick to point to the offensive line as the biggest benefactor.

“The position I am most excited about compared to last year is our offensive line,” Watson said. “We were really underdeveloped and undercoached there in my opinion. Our offensive line coach has been working those guys since January. I think when we take the field this year, people are going to say, ‘Man, what did them guys do to get better?’ I’m really excited to see what those guys do this year.”

The Longhorns are anchored at tackle by senior Grayson Mains [6-foot-5, 265 pounds], a three-star prospect who is committed to South Carolina.

Joining Mains are players such as Chap Cunningham, Elijah Haughawout and Kyle Cunningham.

Haughawout played defensive end last season and also lined up at offensive tackle down the stretch.

“He’s another guy that if you look at on film from last year to now, he don’t even look like the same person,” Watson said. “His weight room numbers have shot through the roof. I think the last time we maxed, he was 285, 290 on cleans. He’s a very athletic big man. I think he’s going to play college football, probably on the offensive line. On the defensive line, he’s going to be hard to block for sure.”

That time in the weight room also benefitted wide receiver Kojo Antwi [44 catches, 795 yards, 9 TDs], who committed during the offseason to play football at Ohio State.

Antwi is listed at 6-foot, 190 pounds and will also play cornerback for the Longhorns.

“To look at Kojo today compared to the first time I ever met him, he don’t look like the same person,” Watson said. “I think when I first met him, he was a 240-pound cleaner in the See LAMBERT | 29

Aug. 20 – Centennial at Lambert Aug. 27 – Lambert at Lassiter Sept. 3 – Lambert at Meadowcreek Sept. 10 – Duluth at Lambert *Sept. 16 – South Forsyth at Lambert Sept. 23 – BYE *Oct. 1 – Gainesville at Lambert *Oct. 8 – Lambert at Denmark *Oct. 15 – North Forsyth at Lambert *Oct. 22 – Lambert at Forsyth Central *Oct. 29 – Lambert at West Forsyth Nov. 5 – BYE

*Region 6-7A game

2020 results

5-5 Overall, 1-5 Region 6-7A

Lambert 34, Campbell 9 Lambert 34, Lassiter 19 Lambert 38, Meadowcreek 20 Lambert 26, Duluth 10 *South Forsyth 44, Lambert 14 *Gainesville 42, Lambert 35 *Denmark 52, Lambert 14 *North Forsyth 34, Lambert 20 *Lambert 43, Forsyth Central 42 *West Forsyth 42, Lambert 27

*Region 6-7A game

trophy case

First varsity season: 2010 Playoff appearances: 6 (2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016) Region titles: 1 (2016) State titles: 0

the coach Tommy Watson

At Lambert: 5-5, second season Overall: 28-43, eighth season

No. Pos./Name Year Hgt./Wgt.

1 WR/DB Darren Guy 12 6-2 185 2 QB/DB James Tyre 11 5-9 150 3 RB/DB Ethan Terry 10 5-8 155 4 WR/DB Brandon Jones 11 5-11 163 5 RB/ILB Harrison Peyton 12 6-3 205 6 QB/OLB Levi Watson 10 6-1 175 7 WR/DB Bradley Gabriel 11 6-0 170 8 FB/ILB/LS Carson Knowles 10 5-10 180 9 TE/OLB Jake Johnson 12 6-2 195 10 RB/DB Tommy Morris 11 5-10 165 11 WR/DB Kojo Antwi 12 6-1 195 12 WR/DB Xavier Couloute 11 6-2 175 13 WR/DB Jack Ryan 10 5-9 150 14 WR/DB Nathan Downey 10 5-10 135 15 TE/DE Luke Logan 11 6-3 215 16 QB/DB/P Ashton Smith 12 6-1 170 17 QB/DB James Thorson 10 5-9 150 18 WR/DB Xan Kelly 10 5-9 145 19 TE/OLB/LS Ryan Cameron 11 6-3 180 20 WR/DB Jhase Wint 11 5-9 165 21 WR/DB Elijah Castillo 11 5-8 160 22 WR/DB Nate Benson 12 6-2 156 23 WR/DB Henry Reese 12 5-8 170 24 WR/OLB Davis Dobbs 12 5-8 140 25 WR/DB Cole Nelson 10 5-11 160 26 WR/DB Evan Consoli 10 5-9 150 27 WR/DB Andreas Betancur 11 5-11 175 28 WR/DB KJ Garrett 11 5-9 165 31 WR/ILB Caleb Gu 10 5-5 138 32 TE/OLB Ashu Siju 10 6-0 180 33 RB/ILB Joseph Tripp 11 5-9 185 34 FB/ILB Dawson Miller 12 6-0 175 35 TE/DE Finn Braeuer 10 6-2 195 36 RB/DB Sharath Ragila 12 5-10 165 38 WR/OLB Noah Dobbs 10 5-9 146 39 WR/DE Dylan Wood 10 5-8 150 40 TE/OLB/LS Brennan Schneider 12 6-2 205 41 FB/ILB Sam Killoran 10 5-6 154 42 FB/ILB Drake Smith 11 5-10 175 44 TE/DE/K Owen Heybroek 10 6-3 165 45 TE/DE Branden Eivich 11 6-1 195 46 WR/OLB Aidan Hope 12 6-0 160 47 FB/DE Will Taylor 10 5-7 160 48 FB/OLB Mike Borasak 11 6-0 180 50 OL/DL Steven Aguilar 11 5-10 266 51 OL/DL Sam Wilmouth 12 5-9 195 52 OL/DL Luke Stephens 11 6-1 235 53 OL/DL Chap Cunningham 12 5-10 240 54 OL/DL Thomas Hall 10 5-10 175 55 OL/DL Landon Smith 10 6-2 200 56 OL/DL Tyler Van Treek 11 5-11 200 57 OL/DL/LS Grayson Mains 12 6-6 285 58 OL/DL Matthew Russo 12 5-10 226 59 OL/DL Krish Bhutiyani 10 5-8 167 62 OL/DL Riley Mitchamore 11 5-11 229 64 OL/DL Sean Feely 11 6-4 300 65 OL/DL Jake Hall 11 5-8 217 66 OL/ILB Koby Lang 10 6-0 175 67 OL/DL Ronit Parikh 11 6-1 205 68 OL/DL Jack Racki 11 6-2 210 71 OL/DL Jalen Brittingham 10 6-0 265 72 OL/DL John Dabbs 10 6-3 225 73 OL/DL Daniel Uwakwe 11 5-11 240 74 OL/DL Kyle Cunningham 11 6-4 270 76 OL/DL Noel Lacayo 12 6-1 270 77 OL/DL Elijah Haughawout 12 6-4 265 78 OL/DL Teada Friend 11 6-0 237 79 OL/DL Michael Scullin 10 6-0 170 80 WR/DB Houston Harris 10 5-7 132 81 WR/DB Caleb Bennett 10 5-9 170 84 WR/DB Jake O’Haver 11 5-5 130 85 TE/OLB Mike Pritzker 11 6-4 180 88 TE/DL Aidan Fenton 10 6-0 160 89 K/P Ryan Degyansky 11 5-9 187 99 K Alex Mitchell 11 5-9 140

On the defensive side of the ball, the team is led by senior linebacker Carson Leak, who had a team-high 115 tackles last season and forced three fumbles. Leak is excited to work with this group of guys this season and is proud of how they’ve worked this summer.

“We’ve been putting in the work as a team collectively, and we’ve all been buying in pretty well together,” Leak said. “We lost some guys from last year, but we’re coming back with a young group that is going to be ready to go. We’ve got me and my brother [Camden Leak] at middle linebacker, some returning guys on the line that are going to be ready to go. We’ve been putting in the work in the weight

FROM 4 room with Coach Christie, and we’re going to ready to go and show Central people what we can do.” Forsyth Central opens its season Aug. 20 at home against Northview. The players have a few other games marked on their schedule. Rival North Forsyth, who the Bulldogs beat in a thriller 28-27 last season is marked on their schedule, as is Gainesville, a 33-28 winner last season against Central. With two teams – Denmark and West Forsyth – advancing to the second round of the playoffs last season, Rooney knows how difficult winning in their region can be. “We have an extremely competitive region,” Rooney said. “We’re all capable of being region champs and we’re all capable of going 0-6. Every week is going to have a great battle.”

No. Name Year Position No. Name Year Position No. Name Year Position

2 Julian Dewees 10 RB/DB 3 Camden Yeager 11 WR/DB 4 Jordan Ratner 10 RB/LB 5 Daniel Smith 11 WR/DB 6 Braden Wudi 11 DB/RB 7 Marcus Brown 12 RB/DB 8 Drew Mullvain 12 QB 9 Toby Legarra 12 LB/BB 11 Cade Haertel 10 WR/DB 12 Koby Balthazor 11 QB 13 Dylan Steine 10 QB/DB 14 Micah Cromartie 10 RB/DB 15 Tyler Thompson 12 DB/WR 16 Daniel Perlman 12 WR/DB 18 Kaden Sexton 10 WR/DB 19 Tanner Keylon 10 RB/DB 20 Jayce Todaro 10 RB/DB 21 Christian Petrowshy 10 WR/DB 22 Aiden Manalastas 11 WR/DB 23 Ben Warro 12 DB/WR 24 Ian Grimes 11 K/RB 25 Malachi McElroy 12 RB/LB 26 Justin Taylor 10 RB/DB 27 RJ Shaheen 12 RB/ILB 28 Diego Tarquini 11 DB/RB 29 Patrick Haertel 12 RB/LB 31 Braden Dover 10 WR/DB 32 John Martin Bennett 11 WR/DE 33 Camden Leak 12 LB/TE 34 Cole Brumbelow 12 DB/RB 35 Kole McGlumphy 11 LB/FB 36 Austin McNeil 12 OLB/RB 37 Garrett Northam 12 DB/WR 38 James Yarborough 12 DB/WR 39 Angel Cruz 10 RB/DB 40 Aiden Meehan 11 LB/BB 41 Evan Morris 12 DB/WR 42 Zach Artz 11 WR/DB 43 Dawson Heim 12 WR/DB 44 Aidan White 10 TE/DL 45 Trey Richards 12 K/P 47 Preston Kerr 10 TE/LB 48 Kemran Shakhmanov 12 OLB/RB 49 Noah Hallerman 10 LB/OL 50 Jonathan Molina 10 OL/LB 52 Sullivan Eash 12 OL/DL 55 Nate Wimberly 10 OL/DL 56 Carson Leak 12 LB/OL 57 Noah Holt 11 OL/DL 58 Brandon Gayton 12 OL/LB 61 Jay Wells 11 DL/OL 62 Nasair White 12 DE/OL 63 Harrison Gumbert 11 OL 64 Michael Johnson 10 OL/DL 65 Jacob Riles 11 OL/DL 66 Andrew Carrizo 11 DL/OL 67 Ben Carnes 10 OL/DL 68 Josh Acevedo 11 OL/DL 69 Mitchell Dunlap 10 DL/OL 71 Braden Carter 10 OL/DL 74 Karson George 10 OL/DL 75 Luc Gwinner 12 OL/DL 76 Charlie Shadburn 10 OL/DL 77 Luke Sacchettie 11 OL/DL 78 Christian Alexander 10 OL/DL 79 Toby Pritzlaff 10 OL/DL 81 Jonathan Pinto 10 WR/DB 82 Luis Salgado 11 K/DB 86 Jonathan Clapper 11 K / P 87 Herbert Iraloze 12 WR/DB 89 Dominic Willi 12 TE/LB 91 Tyler Fisk 12 DE/TE