JV loses to tough Cisco team
By Sam Waller
For the second time this season, turnovers were detrimental for the Albany Lion junior varsity football team.
Albany lost the ball four times Thursday, Sept. 28 in a 35-12 loss to Cisco at Robert Nail Memorial Stadium.
“Our kids played hard,” JV coach Rod Britting said. “It wasn’t a lack of effort. Up until their last touchdown, we were playing hard. We just needed a couple of breaks and didn’t get them.”
The JV Lions return to action at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 5 (tonight), with a visit to Miles. The game will be the nightcap of a tripleheader with Albany’s junior high teams. The seventh grade game will start at 4:30 p.m.
The game against Cisco wasn’t arranged until early last week. Albany had been searching for a game after not playing on the JV level in the opening week.
Britting said not having the same level of preparation as the Lions would normally have was a factor.
“The things Cisco runs posed some problems for us,” he said. “They had two or three things you just have to prepare for. They run option, a read scheme and Wing-T with a trap. We haven’t seen trap all year. Then they run their power stuff out of the same formations.”
Shawn Keen scored both Albany touchdowns, a 39-yard run on the first possession and a 48-yard reception from Aaden Mendez to start the third quarter.
Keen rushed for 74 yards as Albany finished with 238 total yards. Breylon Billington added 23 yards with Mason McCloy gaining 14, Jack Nail 12, and Hollis Yeates 9.
Mendez finished 8 of 16 passing for 117 yards. McCloy caught five passes for 42 yards, Keen two for 67, and Jaxson Street one for 9 yards.
Cisco gained 311 total yards, 256 of it on the ground. The Loboes were just 2 of 5 passing, but both completions went for touchdowns.
Both teams started crisply with Cisco taking the opening kickoff 56 yards in five plays, scoring on a 47-yard run. Albany responded by covering 66 yards in four plays for Keen’s first score, but a failed conversion left the Loboes ahead 7-6.
The next four possessions resulted in punts before Cisco put together a 10-play, 80-yard drive that ended with a 2-yard score with 3:39 left in the half.
Albany moved to the Cisco 7-yard line with less than two minutes remaining only to lose a fumble.
The Lions made up for it by driving the second-half kickoff 71 yards in six plays for Keen’s TD catch, but another failed conversion left Albany trailing 14-12.
Albany then held on downs at its 36 only to suffer another turnover with an interception that was returned to the 38. Five plays later, Cisco threw a 24-yard touchdown pass with 9:35 to go in the game.
“It was 14-12 going to the fourth quarter and we felt like if we made a good stop we’d have a chance to put one in the end zone,” Britting said. “Then they scored again and made it where we’d have to score twice.”
Once the downhill slide started, Albany was unable to stop it. Facing fourth-and-3 at their 29, the Lions lost another fumble. Cisco converted on fourth down with a 31-yard TD pass.
Yet another fumble on the ensuing kickoff gave the Loboes the ball at the Albany 35. Cisco scored on the second play with 3:51 to go, the third touchdown in a span of 5:44.
Albany put together a 14-play drive to the Cisco 9 in the final minute, benefitting from two interference penalties, but turned the ball over on downs with 18 seconds left.
