GRAND LAKE — Through the first four weeks of the season, DeQuincy won by an average of more than 34 points. Thursday night in Grand Lake, they showed they can win the close ones too as they beat the Hornets 10-7.

“That’s the name of our game,” DeQuincy head coach Tate Woodard said. “People think this year that we’ve been an offensive team, and we put up some good offensive numbers, but we play defense here first.

“It showed tonight. We told our guys that the plan was to play defense first. Offense is great, and everybody loves coming to watch it and all that, but defense wins you games, especially like this, against a very well-coached team.”

DeQuincy, 5-0 for the first time since 1984, held Grand Lake to 159 yards of total offense and forced a fumble that was recovered by defensive lineman Bruce VanWinkle, leading to the go-ahead touchdown in the second quarter. Wyatt LaVergne had 12 tackles, while M.J. Clark and Cameron Joyce had seven each. Hayz Hext had five tackles, a sack and 1.5 tackles for a loss before he left the game with 2:25 left in the second quarter with an injury.

“We didn’t have some match-ups on the interior size-wise, but our guys just got after it,” Woodard said. “And once again, we won the penalty battle, and that’s why we’re standing here in victory lane tonight.”

Woodard had hoped to get more out of the passing game, but it did enough as the Tigers kept their turnover sheet clean. Carson Rainwater completed 12 of 24 passes for 122 yards, including what turned out to be the game-winning play, a 7-yard touchdown pass to Clark in the second quarter. Running back Wyatt LaVergne ran for 96 yards on 25 carries, and Diron Valentine caught three passes for 50 yards.

“We weren’t near as efficient in the passing game as we usually are, but we’re gonna fix those things,” Woodard said. “But we committed minimal penalties again. We won the penalty battle, and we won the turnover battle.”

Kohen Cormier kicked his third field goal of the season, a 25-yarder, with 9:13 left in the second quarter to cut Grand Lake’s lead to 7-3.

Grand Lake’s game plan worked early as they ate nearly 7 minutes off the clock on their opening drive and took a 7-0 lead on a 26-yard run by Charles McFarland. While penalties helped keep that drive alive — a roughing the passer penalty wiped out a fumble, they did not help the rest of the game. Grand Lake finished with 13 penalties for 93 yards.

The toughest penalty came when the Hornets were trying to take the lead late in the fourth quarter. McFarland, who finished with 143 yards on 24 carries, broke off a 69-yard run to the Tigers’ 7-yard line. But a holding penalty brought the ball back to the Hornets’ 14-yard line and they turned the ball over on downs two plays later.

“We had some things that happened tonight that we don’t normally happen,” Grand Lake head coach Jeff Wainwright said. “As far as the penalties, it’s unfortunate.

“We just gotta clean up our whole operation on what we’re doing and some of the procedure calls. And hats off to DeQuincy. Their defense played really, really well. Their offense, they ran the ball when they needed to run the ball.”

Grand Lake (2-2) will open District 4-1A play next week at Hamilton Christian, while DeQuincy will host Erath.

“I feel like my club grew a little bit tonight, and we gotta keep growing,” Wainwright said. “I think our best football is still ahead of us.

“We just gotta turn our sights to next week and fix our issues.”

DeQuincy 10

Grand Lake 7

SCORE BY QUARTERS

DeQuincy 0 10 0 0 — 10

Grand Lake 7 0 0 0 — 7

SCORING SUMMARY

GL: Charles McFarland 26 run (Luke Wainwright kick)

DQ: FG Kohen Cormier 25

DQ: M.J. Clark 7 pass from Carson Rainwater (Cormier kick)

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

RUSHING — DeQuincy: Wyatt LaVergne 25-96, Koby Pool 3-(minus-5), Hayz Hext 2-2, Caron Rainwater 1-6, Turner Rodriguez 1-3.

PASSING — DeQuincy: Rainwater 12-24-0—122.

RECEIVING — DeQuincy: Lindsey Joyce 1-35, Nolan Schrader 1-8, Diron Valentine 3-51, M.J. Clark 1-7, Koby Pool 6-21.

RECORDS — DeQuincy: 5-0. Grand Lake: 2-2.