Lions to open season in C-City

By Sam Waller

The Albany Lions football team had its last dress rehearsal for the season on Thursday, Aug. 19, with its second scrimmage against the Hawley Bearcats.

Now, the Lions turn their attention to Friday’s season opener at Colorado City.

“We’re excited about getting to go to Colorado City and open up the season,” Lions head coach Denney Faith said. “I felt like we had two good scrimmages against good football teams. I think we’ve got ourselves ready to start our season.”

The Lions were outscored 4-0 in the scrimmage as Hawley hit a series of big pass plays. The Bearcats scored the only touchdown of a live quarter on an 11-yard pass with 37 seconds remaining.

Faith said the Lions had a productive evening, and that helped the team prepare for the first game.

“We feel good about where we are right now,” he said. “We were trying to get some things done during scrimmages that we felt we needed to work on the most.” 

Faith felt that several things were  accomplished during the scrimmage setting. 

“We still have some personnel questions on where people need to be, but I think when we get it all figured out and get some kids back that are not healthy right now, we’ll be in good shape,” the coach said.

Friday was just another step in a never-ending process, Faith said.

“We won’t ever quit working on stuff,” he said. “There’s always going to be something that we have to get better at, or an injury will happen, and we’ll have to move some people around a little bit.” 

He commented that Albany players are good at adapting. 

“That’s the way it is in 2A football,” he said. “You’d better be able to play multiple positions and be able to do it well.”

Faith said the fruits of the Lions’ labors will be borne out in district play.

“We’ve still got a long way to go; I know that,” he said. “We’re not close to being as good as our potential will let us be. We’ve got a good group of guys who are working hard. We’ve just got to keep getting reps and keep getting better each week.”

Among the bright spots for the Lions were interceptions by London Fuentes and Ryan Mark during the live quarter, which helped keep Hawley out of the end zone until the final minute. Albany’s run defense was solid, holding the Bearcats to just 11 net yards on 12 carries. The Lions recorded two tackles for loss.

“I was proud of our defense,” Faith said. “I felt like, for the most part, we played well defensively.”

Although the Lions gave up a couple of long balls in the passing game, they also had two interceptions, he said. 

“I felt like we were a little more physical,” said Faith, “but we still need to tackle better.”

Albany recorded 72 yards of total offense (58 rushing, 14 passing) with four first downs.

One highlight was running back Jaheim Newton gaining 19 yards on a screen pass to convert on a third and 11 situation. Newton had a 25-yard run to the Hawley two-yard line negated by a penalty in the live quarter.

“Offensively, I felt like we did a lot better job of run blocking,” Faith said. “We were running into an eight-man front, and Jaheim ran hard. We felt good about our run game. We’ve still got to protect better.”

Hawley accumulated 325 total yards (11 rushing, 314 passing) with 14 first downs. Most of the Bearcats’ yardage and two of their scores came on five pass completions that covered 30 yards or more.

Hawley had a two-yard touchdown pass on its final snap of the opening segment, then struck for scoring passes of 69 and 70 yards with its second offense.

Facing Colorado City

Albany opens its season at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Wolf Stadium.

Faith said the Wolves have had their own personnel questions to deal with during the preseason.

“It looks like they’re working with two quarterbacks right now trying to figure out which one they want to settle on,” he said. “We’re not exactly sure which quarterback we’ll see.”

What the Lions will see is a drastically different offensive scheme.

“From what we’ve seen on film, they’re really working hard on their option game trying to run some triple-option type looks,” Faith said. “We’ll be expecting to see some of that. It gives us a good chance to work on some option stuff that we haven’t seen this year.”

Faith said the Wolves’ approach poses a different kind of problem for opposing defenses.

“Everybody’s going to have their responsibilities,” he said. “You’ve got to stay disciplined and know your responsibility or they’ll burn you. They’re going to really test us.”

Faith said Friday’s experience will benefit the team later in the season.

“One of our teams in district (Santo) runs a similar offense,” he said. “It’ll be good for us to see it early here and work on that before we get into a district game.”

Faith said the intensity level naturally increases as teams transition from preseason work to game preparation.

“We don’t really game plan for scrimmages,” he said. “It’ll be a little different situation now that we have a game. I feel good about what our kids are doing. We’ve got some kids in different positions, and I think we’re adjusting well to that.”

Part of the transition is being able to get into a regular game-week routine.

“We’re pretty well into what we’re going to be doing the rest of the year as far as our routine goes,” Faith said. “It hasn’t changed in several years. They know what to expect when they show up for practice on Monday and what’s going to happen on Tuesday and Wednesday before we get on the bus on Friday. We won’t change anything right now.”

Ticket information

Tickets for Friday’s game are available online at ccity.hometownticket ing.com/embed/all, or the Colorado City athletic webpage has a link to the site.

Tickets are $5 for adults and $3 for students.