Suffice it to say, the Lake View High School football team hasn't had this much fun since 2005.

And the Chiefs hope this is just the beginning and that bigger victories are on the horizon in District 4-4A.

With arguably their best defensive effort of the season and 538 yards of total offense, the Chiefs overwhelmed the Plainview Bulldogs 40-21 Thursday night at San Angelo Stadium in the district opener for both teams.

Prior to Thursday's contest, the Chiefs hadn't won a district game since the 2005 season.

But the Chiefs continue to make strides under first-year head coach Sterlin Gilbert, as they improved to 4-2 overall heading into next Friday's showdown at home against Abilene Cooper.

Thursday's game started 2.5 hours earlier than usual, and the Chiefs didn't waste any time building a huge lead.

Chiefs quarterback John David Baker connected with wide receiver Paul Mesta for a 12-yard TD catch to give Lake View a 20-0 advantage with 3:05 left before halftime.

However, the Bulldogs (2-4) weren't going down without a fight, as they pulled to within 33-21 with 11:26 left in the contest.

Lake View put the game out of reach on a 12-yard TD run by running back Chris Blair, who finished with 96 yards rushing on 18 attempts.

Baker had a team-high 120 yards rushing on 12 carries, and he scored three rushing touchdowns, including a 68-yarder midway through the third quarter.

The Chiefs' senior signal-caller was just as efficient throwing the ball, as he finished 14-of-17 passing for 253 yards and two TD passes to Mesta. Mesta now has 11 TD passes on the season and has caught at least one TD pass in every game so far.

Wide receiver Dominic Manuel didn't find his way into the end zone, but he was a sure-handed target for Baker all night. He ended up with six receptions for 122 yards.

Running back Tay Williams also had a strong performance with 69 yards rushing on eight carries, in addition to some long kickoff and punt returns.

All in all, it was probably Lake View's best overall game of the season. It's just what the Chiefs needed heading into next week's game against Cooper, where Gilbert was the offensive coordinator before being hired at Lake View in January.

"It feels real good," Lake View safety Rodney Akers said. "It's translating into what we talked about - new results. Our hard work's paying off, so I'm very happy about that.

"The defense just played our butts off and the offense did their part. We came out and we started and we finished it. It'll give us a lot of confidence, because Abilene Cooper's a real good team on offense. We need confidence to go against them and play hard. We're going to keep on fighting hard and we're going to try to win the district (title)."

Linebacker T.J. Campbell echoed those thoughts.

"This is probably the best work week we've had all year, and it really showed," Campbell said. "Today, our defense was so hyped we knew what to do every play. This year's been great. We've just been having so much fun. Going out there and having fun was really what it was all about."

Gilbert was pleased with the effort in all three phases of the game - offense, defense and special teams. But he acknowledges that the Chiefs still have some work to do in order to continue their roll and qualify for the playoffs for the first time in four years.

"We're still in the process of learning how to win and how to finish off opponents and finish games," Gilbert said. "It was a great team win tonight. The contributions go to No. 1 our kids and the great staff I was able to hire. The combination of those two made for the results we got tonight. I appreciate everything our kids have done. Our coaching staff is second to none. We've just got to continue to work."

Gilbert lauded the breakthrough performance by Manuel, who had his best game of the season.

"Dominic's a resilient player, and he's tough," Gilbert said. "He just does a great job of being consistent, and he's a guy we like to get the football to."

As brilliant as he has been in his three-year career, Baker had never tasted a district win until Thursday.

Now that he's got that monkey off his back, he's hoping for bigger things in the future.

"This is huge," the Lake View quarterback said. "I can't really describe the feeling right now. It's been a long process and we've worked our butts off. We deserved this tonight. If we execute like we can, we can play with anybody."

Lake View 40,

Plainview 21

Score by Quarters

Plainview 0 7 7 7 21

Lake View 7 13 13 7 40

SCORING SUMMARY

First Quarter

Lake View - 5:04 remaining, John David Baker 16 run (C.J. Lee kick).

Second Quarter

Lake View - 10:28, Baker 1 run (kick blocked).

Lake View - 3:05, Paul Mesta 12 pass from Baker (Lee kick).

Plainview - 1:07, Melvin Shivers 1 run (John Solorzano kick).

Third Quarter

Lake View - 8:49, Mesta 33 pass from Baker (Javier Parry kick).

Plainview - 6:23, Jonathan Garza 7 run (Solorzano kick).

Lake View - 6:09, Baker 68 run (pass failed).

Fourth Quarter

Plainview - 11:26, Shivers 38 run (Solorzano kick).

Lake View - 5:18, Chris Blair 12 run (Parry kick).

Plainview Lake View

First downs 12 23

Rushing Yards 32-150 38-285

Passing Yards 84 253

Total yards 234 538

Comp-Att-Int 5-14-1 14-17-0

Fumbles-lost 2-0 1-0

Punts-avg. 4-28.0 2-33.5x

Penalties-yards 6-60 13-103

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing

Plainview - Melvin Shivers 21-145; Brett Collins 3-0; David Hernandez 2-0; Roy Smith 2-1; Jason Miller 2 (-9); Jonathan Garza 1-7; Enrique Martinez 1-6.

Lake View - John David Baker 12-120; Chris Blair 18-96; Tay Williams 8-69.

Passing

Plainview - Miller 4-12-1 for 47; Martinez 1-2-0 for 37.

Lake View - Baker 14-17-0 for 253.

Receiving

Plainview - Hembree 2-72; Thomas Curry 1-7; Shivers 1-3; Rolando Larralde 1-2.

Lake View - Dominic Manuel 6-122; Mesta 3-88; Williams 2-22; Blair 1-8.

Records - Lake View is 4-2 overall, 1-0 in district. Plainview is 2-4, 0-1.

Next week - Abilene Cooper at Lake View; Big Spring at Plainview.