Albany to host Dublin in home debut
By Sam Waller
For the second year in a row, the Albany Lions eked out a narrow season-opening victory over the Lubbock Trinity Christian Lions, rallying from a two-touchdown deficit Friday, Aug. 25 to win 22-21.
Albany (1-0) makes its 2023 home debut Friday, Sept. 1 when it hosts the Dublin Lions at Robert Nail Memorial Stadium.
At Trinity’s Archie Warwick Memorial Stadium, Albany trailed 21-7 with less than four minutes to go in the first half before turning things around. Branson Beal gave Albany its only lead of the night on a 29-yard pass from Chip Chambers on the second play of the fourth quarter, and the Albany defense protected the one-point margin the rest of the way.
“Our defense was outstanding,” Albany head coach Denney Faith said. “I’m really pleased with how we’re playing on that side of the ball.”
Faith said his team showed perseverance after a rough start.
“We could have gotten down in the first half with some of those plays,” Faith said. “We made some adjustments at halftime and came out and played hard. I thought we had a great effort the whole game. We’ve just got some things to clean up.”
Part of the problem, Faith said, was having a number of new pieces trying to fit together.
“We counted it up and there are 11 or 12 positions on the field out of 22 that are either new kids, young kids who hadn’t played on Friday night, or kids playing in a different position,” he said. “Half of the positions on the field are still in the process of learning.”
Among the newcomers were Chambers and running-back linebacker Jaxson Hoel, who both had positive impacts. Chambers finished 13 of 24 passing for 212 yards with the touchdown and an interception. The junior completed eight of his final 12 attempts after being picked off midway through the second quarter. Hoel added 53 scrimmage yards on 11 touches and was a key part of the defensive effort.
Faith said significant progress was made in getting everything working together.
“After watching the film, we wanted to run the ball better than we did (in the last scrimmage with Early), and we had 200 yards rushing,” he said. “We had 200 yards passing, and we always want to be balanced. To have a 400-yard night is pretty good.”
That was augmented by big games from holdovers. Adam Hill rushed for 135 yards and two scores on 29 carries, while Cason Fairchild caught six passes for 153 yards and added 27 yards rushing. Fairchild finished with 217 all-purpose yards.
Albany dominated pretty much every statistic except the score, but a series of early miscues enabled Trinity to build its 14-point lead. Benjamin Bruce took a short pass from Eli Reeves 75 yards to score on Trinity’s second offensive snap, Javion Ramon blocked and returned a punt to score early in the second quarter, and Reeves set up a short TD drive with an interception he returned to the Albany 23-yard line.
Albany countered with ball-control offense and smothering defense. Albany ran 68 plays to Trinity’s 28, held a 21-4 edge in first downs and outgained Trinity 418 total yards to 146.
Hill led the defense with eight tackles, while Hoel had six. Both linebackers recorded a tackle for loss.
Tyler Chapman was in on five tackles with Lanxton Viertel and Luke Marshall making four apiece.
About the only areas Trinity fared better was in punting – Tyler Madsen averaged 54.3 yards on three attempts – and turnovers, claiming two and losing none.
Albany had three possessions inside the Trinity 30 come up empty. Two ended on downs at the 20 and 29, while a potential clinching drive was stopped by a fumble at the 12.
“We left a couple of scores on the field with drives that stalled,” Faith said. “Looking at it stat-wise, we dominated the ballgame; it just didn’t show up on the scoreboard.”
Albany had five offensive series that lasted eight plays or more.
Hill’s first score, a 2-yard plunge over the right side, tied the game at 7-7 with 4:59 to go in the first quarter. Fairchild got loose for a 75-yard reception on the play before.
After Reeves scored on a 16-yard keeper with 3:59 remaining in the half, Albany mounted a 12-play, 63-yard drive that Hill capped with a 1-yard run with 18 seconds left. Chambers completed third-down passes of 12 and 14 yards to Fairchild and connected with Hoel for an 11-yard gain to set up first-and-goal at the 5.
Albany inched a little closer with a safety to open the third quarter. With Trinity facing fourth-and 11 from its own 11, a low punt snap was bobbled, leading Madsen to toss the ball out of the end zone.
Trinity missed opportunities to extend or regain the lead as the Albany defense asserted control. A 37-yard pass from Reeves to Bruce gave Trinity first down at the Albany 29, but Madsen was wide on a 39-yard field goal attempt.
After Beal’s TD, Trinity’s Deacon Highley returned the ensuing kickoff to the Albany 46. Four later, Albany took over on downs at the 40.
Following Albany’s fumble, Trinity was forced to punt from its own 9 and Albany ran out the final 6:32.
On the final possession, Albany faced fourth-and-6 at the Trinity 41. When punter Zane Waggoner rushed to line up under center, Trinity called its final timeout with 3:13 to go.
Faith then sent the offense back out and Chambers and Fairchild hooked up for 8 yards for the clinching first down.
While the end result was positive, Faith said there is plenty of work to be done before lining up against Dublin.
More than half of Trinity’s yardage came on the opening touchdown with two plays accounting for 112 yards.
“We’ve also got to shore up our special teams,” the coach said. “We had the blocked punt, we didn’t cover well on a couple of kickoffs, we let punts drop and roll and lost yardage that way. Those kinds of things we can correct.”
Facing Dublin
Albany faces another Lions-vs.-Lions matchup in Week 2, albeit against a more familiar opponent. This will be the 10th consecutive season Albany and Dublin have played and the 22nd time during Faith’s tenure as head coach.
The big difference with Dublin, which opened last week with a 36-13 loss to Fort Worth Christian, is a new trigger man on offense. Sophomore Ayden Vargas takes over at quarterback following the graduation of three-year starter Chris Teten. Vargas was 13 of 18 passing for 40 yards with an interception in his debut.
“Dublin’s still doing the same stuff they’ve done, just with a different guy doing it,” Faith said. “Vargas looks like a really athletic kid. Dublin will throw the ball around, stretch you out and try to run it a little bit.”
Faith said facing a different scheme after run-oriented Trinity will be a good test for Albany.
The game will be Albany’s first home appearance after traveling the last three weeks.
ALBANY OPPONENTS
Week 1
Lubbock Trinity Christian (0-1) lost to Albany 22-21.
Dublin lost (0-1) to Fort Worth Christian 36-13.
Seymour (1-0) beat Anson 40-14.
Hawley (0-1) lost to Jim Ned 34-12.
Comanche (1-0) beat Brady 37-8.
Miles (1-0) beat Kermit 72-12.
Cross Plains (1-0) beat Winters 51-28.
Roscoe (1-0) beat Colorado City 42-0.
Hamlin (0-1) lost to Stamford 48-6.
Abilene TLC (0-1) lost to Water Valley 60-9.
