Albany to open season on road
By Sam Waller
The Albany Lions wrapped up preseason Thursday, Aug. 17 with a solid showing in its scrimmage at Early.
Now the focus shifts from getting ready for the season to actually preparing for specific opponents.
Albany opens the 2023 football season at 7:00 p.m. Friday, Aug. 25 against the Lubbock Trinity Christian Lions at Archie Warwick Memorial Stadium.
Lions head coach Denney Faith said practices took on a different tenor this week with a game to play.
“We’ve done a lot more preparation this week,” he said. “The first couple of weeks, we were working mainly on ourselves. Now we have an opponent that we’ve scouted to prepare for.”
At Early, the Lions failed to score during the controlled portion – the second defense allowed one Early touchdown – but took command during the live quarter with three touchdowns and a field goal.
Two of Albany’s scores came on defensive returns – a fumble recovery by Lanxton Viertel and an interception by Adam Hill. Hill also scored a rushing touchdown on offense, and Zane Waggoner made the field goal as Albany executed its two-minute offense.
“We started out a little slow as expected,” Faith said. We started out on offense, and offense always takes a little longer than defense. By the time we got to the live quarter, we found some things we thought we could do, and our defense played really well.”
Waggoner’s field goal was from about 25 yards, Faith said, with Parker Shelton snapping and Chip Chambers holding. Chambers and Branson Beal have both been working in the holder position after Lute Wheeler, last year’s holder, was forced to give up football because of injuries.
Junior Varsity
Faith said the Albany JV still did not have a game for this week as of Monday, Aug. 21. If no game can be arranged, he said the focus will shift to finding an opponent for the week of Sept. 28, which is Albany’s open week.
In the event there is no JV game this week, Faith said a few players will be added to the varsity for Friday.
Facing Trinity
A year ago, Albany launched its championship season with a 19-15 home victory that wasn’t decided until the final two minutes. Hill’s 15-yard run with 1:45 remaining and London Fuentes’ interception with 53 seconds to go lifted Albany to the win.
For the second year in a row, Albany enters the season ranked No. 1 in Class 2A Division II by Dave Campbell’s Texas Football.
Trinity Christian finished 10-3 last year, reaching the third round of the TAPPS Division III playoffs. After dropping two of its first three games, Trinity won nine in a row, claiming its district title in the process.
Faith said he expects some different looks from Trinity this time.
“Last year, they were Wing-T,” he said. “This year, from what we’ve seen, it’s kind of an option game out of a pistol look.”
That would continue a trend of Albany facing an option team early in the season.
“We feel like we have a good plan against those teams because we’ve seen so many of them,” Faith said. “Santo was always in our district, and they always ran option. It makes you stay disciplined.”
Ticket Information
Tickets must be purchased online at www.-tcslubbock.org/apps/-pages/tickets.
Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students.
Visitor seating consists of two sections of bleachers on the east side of the field.
Fans may bring camp chairs.
Directions
Archie Warwick Memorial Stadium is located at 14205 Quaker Ave. in far south Lubbock.
In Lubbock, take U.S. Highway 87 south toward Woodrow. Turn right onto County Road 7500/146th Street and proceed west to Quaker Avenue. Parking is on the north end of the stadium off Quaker.
An alternative route is to take FM 1885/CR 7400/130th Street at Posey and proceed west to Quaker.
The stadium can also be reached by taking Woodrow Road from Slaton to Woodrow and proceeding north on U.S. 87 to CR 7500/146th Street, requiring a left turn.
