Lions Drop District Opener in Nederland, NEDERLAND, September 10, 2016 - The Livingston Lions went up to Nederland to face the Bulldogs in the district opener and helped the Bulldogs win by committing costly and very untimely penalties against a team that they matched up well against. It's tough to watch the Lions lose to a decent football team when the Lions were capable of at the very least making it a close game, at best, they were capable of beating the Bulldogs. That's how it looked in the first half. Everytime the Lions would do something really good like sack the Bulldog QB to take the dogs out of scoring position, OR, make a great offensive play that would put them in scoring position, it seems like it would get nullified by a penalty. The annoying penalties would continue for nearly the entire game and Head Coach Brian Broussard and his staff were having fits about it. I wont give the ENTIRE scoring summary, but here's how things started...
First Quarter:
8:51 Nederland 2 yd td run w pat, Dogs 7, Lions 0
7:33 Livingston 10 yd td pass to Christian Mitchell, missed pat Dogs 7, Lions 6
6:12 Nederland 6 yd td run w pat Dogs 14, Lions 6
3:55 Nederland scores a 2 pt safety Dogs 16, Lions 6
Second Quarter:
5:17 Nederland 6 yd td run w pat, Dogs 23, Lions 6
1:41 Lions 27 yard fg, Dogs 23, Lions 9
Okay, that's how the first half ended. In spite of the score, the Lions were actually playing decent ball but were just victims of stupid penalties that kept dogging them (no pun intended). As the Lions headed for the locker room at halftime, you could see the Lions were confident that they could still get back in this thing and win it. As an annoying reporter standing on the sidelines, I could see it, hear it, and honestly, I felt confident that this game was far from over if the Lions could just stop the mental mistakes.
Alas, when the second half started, something happened. The Lions just went flat, while the Dogs seemed to make correct adjustments and pinned their ears back and came at the Lions on both sides of the ball. The Lion offense never even got the ball to midfield to even get within whiffing distance of being in scoring position for the entire second half. Meanwhile, the Dogs were scoring early and often while somehow keeping great field position. When it was all said and done, the Dogs won 51 to 9. It turned out to just be a bad game for the Lions. I don't know what else to say. Coach Broussard and his staff have good talent to work with. The Lions just need to gel and good things can happen this year for the Lions. At any rate, in spite of it all, the Willster still had enough to put together a great highlight reel.
The Lions next game is Friday night in the Lions Den against Lumberton.
Go Lions!
Willie P. Openshaw, Editor
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