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	Photo by Graham Cullen Walkersville quarterback Jeremy Musselman looks for a receiver in the fourth quarter of Walkersville's win over Frederick on Friday night.

Walkersville 's featured back, the powerful Quentin Ezelle, was still nursing a sore achilles and wasn't going to play.

Depadua's response: "I was excited. This was my opportunity to show people what I could do."

He just never expected this many chances.

Depadua was both the workhorse and the sparkplug for the Lions offense in a 29-12 victory over Frederick , which gave Walkersville its first winning streak in almost a year and matched its win total from last season.

At 3-2 overall, the Lions are above .500 for the first time since Week 1 of the 2006 season.

Depadua carried 40 times for 168 yards. It was somewhat remarkable that he never found the end zone.

"The Diesel was in the garage," Hines said. "We had to roll the Porsche out."

Except Hines never intended to put that many miles on the Porsche.

"He played every down on offense and almost every down on defense. He had a hell of game," Hines said. "I mean, I didn't realize it was 40 carries. If I would have known that, no."

Even Depadua seemed surprised when informed of his number of carries. Although, he seemed fresh enough to handle 40 more.

"That's a lot," he said.

Depadua's emergence illustrates just how much the Lions have improved. Even without the services of one of their top players, they can still win a big game.

"I think that shows our depth, even though we don't have a lot of players compared to some teams," said quarterback Jeremy Musselman, who completed 11 of 23 passes for 153 yards and three touchdowns.

The Lions, despite facing six-point deficits on two occasions, capitalized on six Frederick turnovers.

The Cadets (2-3) lost five fumbles and Walkersville cashed them in for 22 points.

The most damaging fumbles for Frederick occurred in the final minute of the first half and the opening minutes of the third quarter.

Holding a 6-0 lead on the strength of a 57-yard touchdown run by sophomore Deonte Taylor, the Cadets took over on their own 18 with 52 seconds to play in the first half.

Instead of just kneeling and taking a lead at halftime, the Cadets opted to run a play with quarterback Deon Walker in the shotgun. A handoff to Taylor was fumbled and Walkersville recovered with 41 seconds left on the Frederick 6-yard line.

On the next play, Musselman tossed a 6-yard scoring pass to Brian Schultz, the first of two touchdown receptions for Schultz of identical length.

Then, after taking a 12-6 lead on a 56-yard scoring run by Taylor, Frederick lost a fumble in its own end zone on its second possession of the second half.

The smallest player on the field, 5-foot-4, 156-pound defensive lineman Jon Tseng, fell on the ball in the end zone to pull the Lions even.

Walkersville then pulled away as Musselman connected on a 25-yard field goal, in addition to throwing another scoring pass to Schultz and one of 27 yards to Joey Zuniga.

"It feels great," Musselman said. "This is a lot better feeling than last year."

Frederick collapsed under the weight of its mistakes. In addition to the turnovers, the Cadets were penalized 11 times for 78 yards.

Taylor was one of their bright spots. He finished with 194 yards on 15 carries.