By Brandon Su, staff writer
The varsity football team was unable to secure their first regular season win when they played against the reigning state champions, the Balboa Buccaneers, on Saturday, October 8th, losing the game, 35-6. The Lions fell to 0-2 in league play and 0-6 overall, dropping to the last place in the league.
The Lions started off almost immediately, playing from behind as the Bucs ran the ball with success and scored on a 10 yard rushing touchdown on their opening drive. The Lions attempted to answer back by putting something together on their first drive, but they came up short as the only catch on the drive was by tight end Sidney P. for a gain of 22 yards, but the Lions ended up having to punt it away.
The Lions defense though was able to capitalize on the mistakes the Buccaneers were making to ensure they didn’t score on their second drive. After a string of botched snaps, junior defensive tackle Sidney P. was able to make a play and sack the Buccaneer QB for a 4 yard loss.
The Lions were then able to slowly advance the ball into Buccaneer territory, but again they fell short at trying to bring the game closer as senior kicker Miles E. missed a 40-yard field goal attempt.
The missed field goal attempt by the Lions turned out to be trouble though, as the Bucs were able to capitalize on it right away, as only a few plays later, a Bucs wide receiver scored on a 55 yard catch and run.
The next Lions possession was the teams most successful as junior QB Nate C., scrambled to avoid the Bucs defensive line, then threw a dot to WR Cease R. wide open downfield and he ran away from the Bucs defense to put points up for the Lions; however, they missed the 2-point conversion, keeping the score at 14-6.
This would be the closest the Lions would get though, as the Buccaneers strung together a number of successful scoring drives; including a 10 yard pass for a touchdown in the 2nd quarter, an 80 yard rush for another in the third , and finally, a 15-yard catch and run in the fourth.
After the game, players felt the team needed to be hungrier to compete, although still optimistic at the team’s chances. Nate said, “[Players should be] wanting a way into the game [and] not out of it,” adding, “we can compete with the best of teams, I think the best is yet to come.”
