Injuries continue to plague Lions
Coach Denney Faith and his Albany Lions find themselves in unfamiliar territory with a 0-3 start to the 2018 season.
However, Faith isn’t in panic mode. In fact, despite the losses, he says he feels good about where his team is after playing three powerful 3A opponents.
The Lions will travel to Hawley this week to face the Bearcats, a 2A Div. I team with a 2-1 record that includes wins over Bangs and Roscoe. The team’s lone loss was to Hamlin last week, 32-6.
Kickoff in Hawley is set for 7:30 p.m.
“Traditionally, Hawley is really big and plays really sound football,” Faith said. “I’m sure this will be another hard-fought game.”
Speaking about Albany’s slowest start since 1978 with a 0-3 record, the coach says he is seeing a lot of improvement with each game.
“We are playing better each week, and our kids are fighting hard,” he said. “I love the effort they are giving, and we are continuing to learn something with each game.”
Albany fell to Colorado City, 32-13 in the season opener, while also losing to Dublin, 26-20, in Week 2.
“We have played three powerful 3A schools that are all 3-0 at this point,” he said. “While this isn’t our usual way to start a season, this level of competition will be beneficial to us down the road.”
One take-away that Faith says was apparent last Friday in Albany’s 48-14 loss to Eastland was the Lions’ inability to capitalize on scoring opportunities.
“We have got to learn to finish drives,” he said. “We had 435 yards of offense against a really good team. That is a lot of offense, but we didn’t get the points on the board we should have. That is something we have been struggling with since the first game of the season.”
Albany has also been struggling with injuries.
“We had three starters out, but got one back last week,” he said. “Cameron (Dacus) came back after a shoulder injury and had a great game against Eastland, but then Cutter (Edgar) suffered a shoulder injury.”
Edgar, who is the Lions’ leading rusher, was still being evaluated as to the extent of his injury earlier this week and his status was uncertain for this week. Seniors Payne Hebel and Colton Box are still recovering from knee injuries.
“We are hoping they will be back pretty soon, but we aren’t going to rush them,” Faith said. “We need to be sure that they have plenty of time to heal completely.”
Commenting on the Eastland game, Faith commended junior quarterback Ben West, who he said looked more confident this week. Also, he said Dacus played really well at receiver after checking back in to the lineup after an injury. He praised Blaine Kayga for making some big catches, along with Edgar and Jaheim Newton for running the ball well.”
“For those guys to all have a good night means that the offensive line played well, too,” he said.
The coach said that Eastland’s offense was tough to defend.
“They have a really good offense that plays very fast, which put a lot of pressure on our defense,” he said. “Because of injuries, we had to move some kids around and the speed of the game never gave them much time to adjust.”
The coach commended the defense, but noted that tackling is still an issue.
“They had a big, strong running back that was hard to bring down,” he said. “We had to get plenty of kids to him to stop him.”
Faith said that Ryan Hill had a good game punting the ball, helping pin Eastland deep on a couple of occasions.
Scoring summary
Eastland – Behren Morton pass completed to Anthony Bonilla for 28-yard touchdown. Morton kicked PAT. 1st quarter - 6:10. Score 0-7.
Eastland – Morton pass completed to Alex Gonzalez for 62-yard touchdown. Morton kicked PAT. 2nd quarter – 9:15. Score 0-14.
Eastland – Brandon Fielding ran 91 yards for touchdown. Morton kicked PAT. 2nd quarter – 5:59. Score 0-21.
Eastland – Fielding ran in 19-yard touchdown. Kick by Morton good. 2nd quarter – 2:46. Score 0-28.
Albany – Ben West completed 35-yard pass to Cameron Dacus for touchdown. Ryan Hill kicked PAT. 3rd quarter – 4:26. Score 7-28.
Eastland – Nathaniel Cruz ran in 9-yard touchdown. PAT by Morton. 3rd quarter – 1:07. Score 7-35.
Albany – Jaheim Newton scored on 31-yard run. Hill kicked PAT. 3rd quarter – .44. Score 14-35.
Eastland – Gonzales ran 45 yards for touchdown. Morton kicked PAT. 4th quarter – 11:31. Score 14-42.
Eastland – Field goal, 48 yards by Morton. 4th quarter – 5:26. Score 14-45.
Eastland – Field goal, 48 yards by Morton. 4th quarter – 3:20. 14-48.
