Paul Peterson photo Foster Miller of L'Anse skirts his way around the end during the first half in Thursday night's game versus Lake Linden-Hubbell. Miller scored three times in his team's 32-16 victory.

L’ANSE — Playing a near-perfect first half Thursday night, the L’Anse Purple Hornets had little trouble carving out a 32-16 prep football win over the Lake Linden-Hubbell Lakes.

LL-H coach Andy Crouch was wary of the explosive offense of the Hornets coming into the non-league contest at Volunteers Field.

And he had good reason as the Purple Gang reeled off 29 unanswered points in the first half.

Hornets’ coach Mark Leaf credited strong play on both sides of the line for his team’s second straight victory of the young season. 

“Our line play was outstanding for most of tonight,” Leaf noted. “I thought we controlled the line for the most part.”

L’Anse senior tailback Foster Miller did the most damage, scoring three touchdowns — one of those a 70-yard sprint in the opening quarter. He had a game-high 172 yards on 16 carries.

“Foster (Miller) gives us real good balance on the ground,” Leaf said. “He can run inside, but he’s really dangerous when he gets outside.”

But the Hornets received plenty of contributions from other players, including senior quarterback Kooper Jahfetson.

Jahfetson kept the Lakes — still without the services of senior standouts Aaron Hainault and Peter Heikkinen — off-balance with his nifty footwork and accurate passing.

“He (Jahfetson) has put on some muscle this season, but he’s still pretty quick,” Leaf said.

 Jahfetson clicked on 5 of 8 passes for 79 yards and a score. The TD came on perfectly thrown spiral to senior Chase Parker late in the second quarter to increase the L’Anse margin to 29-0.

The first LHS drive of the night was halted by an interception by Cole Gregorie of the Lakes at the LL-H 41 early in the opening period.

But after halting a LL-H drive at its own 30 later in the period, Miller took a pitchout and breezed 70 yards down the sideline. Reese Waara hit the PAT kick to make it 7-0.

A 6-yard scoring run by Miller early in the second quarter and 2-point pass from Jahfetson to Logan Fish on a busted play upped it to 15-0.

A fumble by the Lakes later in the quarter set up another Miller scoring run of 10 yards for a 22-0 score. That was followed by Parker’s receiving score and the Hornet faithful was in full celebration mode.

Waara, who was perfect on his PAT tries on the night, connected on a 32-yard field goal in the third quarter to up the count to 32-0.

The never-say-die Lakes got on the board with six minutes remaining when quarterback Carter Crouch spun off a nice 60-yard scoring run.

LL-H tallied again with 32 ticks left to play when Kellen Klein scored from 5 yards out.

Leaf gave the Lakes credit fro playing hard.

“They’re battling shorthanded right now and missing some key people,” the L’Anse coach said. “But they played hard right to the end.”

The Hornets received strong line play from tackles Max Ostermeyer and Justin Cichosz.

L’Anse travels to Westwood next Friday to meet the 2-0 Patriots.

The Lakes face a long trip to Munising the same evening.

LL-Hubbell 0 0 0 16 – 16

L’Anse 15 14 3 0 – 32

First quarter

LA – Foster Miller 70 run (Reese Waara kick)

LA – Miller 6 run (Logan Fish pass from Kooper Jahfetson)

Second quarter

LA – Miller 10 run (Waara kick)

LA – Chase Parker 26 pass from Jahfetson (Waara kick)

Third quarter

LA – Waara 32 FG

Fourth quarter

LL – Carter Crouch 60 run (James Tuovila run)

LL – Kellen Klein 5 run (Marcotte run)

Game stats

First downs: LL 7, LA 12; Yards rushing: LL: 48-201: LA 29-254; Yards passing: LL 0-3-0-0; LA 5-8-1-79; Ind. rushing: LL: Tuovila 15-58, Crouch 7-46; LA: Miller 16-176; Magaraggia 7-23; Rec. LA: Waara 2-36; Parker 1-26; Fish 1-17.