Albany controls Dublin in 55-14 win
By Sam Waller
The Albany Lions made sure their second outing of the season didn’t come down to the wire, riding a fast start to a 55-14 victory over the Dublin Lions on Friday, Sept. 2 at Dublin’s Cervetto Stadium.
Albany takes to the road for the second week in a row Friday, Sept. 9 to face the Seymour Panthers in a matchup of 2-0 teams.
At Dublin, Albany scored on five of six first-half possessions and needed just four minutes to take the lead for good.
“I think we were better, especially the first part of the game,” Albany head coach Denney Faith said. “We came out and scored on our first four possessions. We were pretty crisp offensively.”
Faith said it was important that Albany not suffer a letdown after opening the season with a 19-15 victory against Lubbock Trinity Christian in a game that wasn’t decided until the final minute.
“One thing we talked about all week long was not coming out flat after the first game,” he said. “I think we did a good job of that. Our guys came out ready to play.”
Adam Hill rushed for 246 yards and three touchdowns, scoring a fourth on a reception.
“It was huge for us,” Hill said of the start. “We had to make sure we could give our defense some breathing room, give us a comfortable lead.”
Hill credited Albany’s offensive line with setting the tone right from the start.
“The O-line was working their tails off like always,” he said. “They made it easy for me back there.”
Coy Lefevre added two TDs, London Fuentes returned a kickoff 99 yards for a score, and Branson Beal capped the scoring with his first varsity touchdown.
Albany unveiled a new wrinkle with Lefevre taking snaps in a wildcat package. In addition to scoring one of his touchdowns on a direct snap, he also completed a 30-yard pass to Chapman, who lined up at receiver.
“We’re going to keep using that look,” Faith said. “I think that gives us another dimension offensively that people have to prepare for.”
The Albany defense allowed Dublin 368 total yards, but forced six turnovers, including a pair of fumbles at the Albany 3-yard line that led to 97-yard scoring drives.
Jayden Lucas led the Albany defense with seven total tackles and a fumble recovery.
We played hard and gave it our all,” Lucas said. “We had to drop another man into coverage and have a four-man coverage out there, try to cover people up as much as we could.”
Koy Cauble was in on six stops, while Hill, Fuentes, and Samuel Rosas were in on five each. A total of 17 Albany players recorded at least one assisted tackle.
Rosas, Cason Fairchild, and Tyler Chapman each had an interception, while Fuentes and Keatin Russell joined Lucas with fumble recoveries.
Things could have been worse, but penalties wiped out two touchdowns and a fourth interception.
“After that good start, we got a little sloppy,” Faith said. “That’s something we’ve got to work on.”
Fairchild started things off with his interception on the fourth play of the game, returning it 38 yards to the Dublin 23. Six plays later, Lefevre scored from a yard out to put Albany ahead to stay.
Dublin was forced to punt on its next three possessions. Albany responded with touchdown runs of 84 and 25 yards by Hill and 21 yards by Lefevre to lead 28-0 less than a minute into the second quarter.
Teten connected with Kaden Gaitan for a 27-yard score on Dublin’s next drive. After Albany turned the ball over on downs, Dublin drove to the 5-yard line before losing its first fumble.
A 97-yard run by Lefevre was called back on a penalty, but Albany needed just five plays to go the distance with Hill covering the last 42. Chapman hit Fuentes for 40 yards on third-and-6 from the Albany 7 to get the Lions out of the shadow of their own end zone.
Teten hit Adrian Hernandez for a 29-yard score with 53 seconds remaining to cut Albany’s lead to 35-14 at halftime.
After Fuentes, who finished with 149 return yards, ran back the second-half kickoff, Dublin again drove into the red zone only to lose another fumble. This time, it took Albany 13 plays and 5:15 to go the distance with Hill pulling in a 24-yard pass for the score to lead 48-14.
Fuentes’ fumble recovery at the Dublin 43 late in the third quarter led to Beal’s 8-yard TD run with 9:57 remaining.
Facing Seymour
Albany faces another challenge in Seymour, which won district and reached area last year before losing to Muenster. The Panthers opened with wins over Anson and Lindsay.
“They’ve got a good team,” Faith said. “It will be similar to what we saw last week – they’ll spread you out and throw it around. They’ll use two quarterbacks, and they’ll be a little bit different from Dublin as far as running the ball.”
Faith said he expects a pass-first approach from Seymour.
“We may see 60 passes this week,” he said. “We’ll have to be able to contain the quarterback, get some pressure, and mix our coverages up in the secondary.”
Faith said the Panthers’ defensive scheme will be something Albany has seen already this season.
“They play a lot like we saw out of Trinity Christian with a 3-3 stack.”
