GRAND LAKE — Lightning delayed the start of Grand Lake’s District 4-1A game with Elton Thursday night, followed by an early deficit.

But the Hornets didn’t panic and found a plan that worked, answering the Indians’ powerful run game with one of their own to win 42-28.

“Our coaches did a really good job throughout the first quarter just making the subtle adjustments that we needed to match up to the things that they were doing to us,” Grand Lake head coach Jeff Wainwright said. “The players have to be in a state of mind where they want to listen to each other and make the adjustments to play a better game.

“Our kids have done a really good job of that. They were able to listen to the coaches and stay calm enough to make the adjustments.”

Quarterback Brycen Guillory and running back Charles McFarland topped 200 yards each as the Hornets (5-3, 3-1) won their third consecutive game. Guillory ran for 215 yards on nine carries, ripping off long chunks of yards on three touchdowns (40, 61, 78). Guillory also threw a 40-yard touchdown pass to Ezra Fontenot early in the third quarter. McFarland also had a career night with 244 yards on 19 carries and a pair of touchdowns on runs of 65 and 30 yards.

“The offense had some tremendous plays,” Wainwright said. “Brycen had a couple of really good runs.

“Charles has just become the kind of back that we’ve been hoping that he could become, being able to carry the load 25 times a game. It’s a credit to the offensive line as well. They did a good job.”

Elton’s 1,000-yard backs Tristan Leblanc (29 carries, 169 yards) and Makelin Lemoine (12-103 yards) combined for 272 yards and three first-half touchdowns as the Indians (6-3, 2-2) held the momentum early. Elton scored twice in less than a minute on a 5-yard run by Lemoine and a 90-yard kickoff return by Leblanc to take its largest lead, 20-7, with 9:21 left in the second quarter.

“It was a really good game for us, a real physical game,” Wainwright said. “Both their backs are really just tremendous backs.

“It was really good for us to get a win against two dominant running backs like that. We’re going to see that later on in this year’s playoffs. They were able to convert a big third down at 10 at about the negative-35, and that gave them some momentum early, and they pushed it in.

“They got past midfield on a pass play, and they were able to get a score on their first drive. We stalled the drive at about the 30-yard line going in, and it was just some missed assignments. Things like that, things that we needed to adjust.”

Grand Lake responded by scoring three times in the final 7:38 of the first half and took the lead on a 61-yard run by Guillory and the point-after kick by Luke Wainwright with 1:46 left in the first half.

Grand Lake made a defensive stop in the third quarter when it stuffed a fake punt attempt and turned it into a 35-20 lead after a 30-yard run by McFarland with 9:19 left in the third quarter.

“That was the big play of the game for the defense,” Wainwright said. “At that point, the momentum had really shifted and the game kind of stayed in our control the rest of the night.”