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Lions rest, heal during open week

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The Albany Lions closed out the pre-district portion of their schedule on Saturday with a 50-14 loss to The Brook Hill Guard in Bullard, dropping the team to 0-5 on the season.

The Lions are open this week and will spend time conditioning and healing up injuries before the District 7-2A opener against Baird on Oct. 12 at Robert Nail Stadium starting at 7:00 p.m.

Coach Denney Faith said he is glad to see the five-game pre-season behind him.

“We had another tough loss at Brook Hill, finishing up a really competitive pre-season,” Faith said. “The five teams we played have a combined total record of 22-3 and they are all at least one division larger than us.”

The Lions are coming off 11 straight district championships, advancing at least three rounds deep in the playoffs and making three state championship appearances in the same time period.

“We play bigger schools to get us ready for district,” Faith said. “Lately, we have become an enemy to our own success because most of the teams in our own classification won’t play us due to the success of our program. So we have to move up to larger schools to find pre-district games.”

With the exception of a couple of key injuries, the coach says the harder schedule is helpful.

“Having played the kind of teams we have, we should be ready for district to start,” Faith said. “We are looking forward to getting our two injured seniors back in time for district.”

Payne Hebel suffered a knee injury in the first game of the season, and running back Cutter Edgar has been out several weeks, also with a knee injury.

Faith said the Lions had a really tough time moving the ball against what he said was the best defensive front that the Lions have seen this season.

Likewise, the coach said the Guard’s offense was really good with a quarterback that is being looked at by Division I universities.

“We had a really hard time trying to contain him,” Faith said. “But I am really proud of the kids. They continued to fight and play hard throughout the game, and I honestly believe our rough pre-district will pay off in district.”

The coach noted that the team is looking forward to starting the district race.

Scoring Summary

Brook Hill – Khalan Griffin ran for 14-yard touchdown. Two-point run by Fisher Bass. 1st quarter – 8:02. Score 0-8.

Brook Hill – Khalan Griffin ran for 10-yard touchdown. PAT kick by Jake Shaffer. 2nd quarter – 10:14. Score 0-15.

Brook Hill – Khalan Griffin ran 44 yards for a touchdown. Jake Schaffer kicked the PAT. 2nd quarter – 7:20. Score 0-22.

Brook Hill – Khalan Griffin ran two yards for touchdown. Jake Schaffer kicked the PAT. 2nd quarter – 0:47. Score 0-29.

Brook Hill – Kirk Jean-Baptiste ran 47 yards for a touchdown. Jake Shaffer kicked the PAT. 3rd quarter – 11:03. Score 0-36.

Brook Hill – Khalan Griffin ran for 57-yard touchdown. Jake Shaffer kicked the PAT. 3rd quarter – 6:24. Score 0-43.

Albany – Ryan Hill scored on a two-yard touchdown run. Ryan Hill’s PAT kick was blocked. 3rd quarter – 4:13. Score 6-43.

Brook Hill – Jaeger Gowin ran for 3-yard touchdown. Jake Shaffer kicked the PAT. 4th quarter – 9:26. Score 6-50.

Albany – Ben West passed to Ryan Hill for 23-yard touchdown. West threw two-point pass to B.J. Morris. 4th quarter – 0:20. Score 14-50.