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Lions Open District Play with Win Over LCM Bears, LIVINGSTON, September 29, 2012 - Ladies and gentlemen, we have lift off. The Lions finally took flight with a six touchdown performance that proved to be enough to beat a team of LCM Bears that had a little more bite than the Bears of past. Yes, I know about the other times when the Lions lost to the LCM Bears, but those were games where the Lions came out, beat up the bears, then it was the Lions who went into hibernation and allowed the Bears to come back and beat them in ways that resembled Houston and Buffalo (but we don't need to mention that). This was a high scoring affair that turned into a slug fest, a dangerous shootout with bullets flying all over the place. Both teams were able to consistently put together nice drives and march down the field with a combination of running and passing. Since both defenses were getting scored on left, right, up the middle, and over the top, the game would get down to whichever team's defense stepped up when it had to, in this case, the Lions D came through and did just enough for the Lion offense to outscore the Bear offense and win by 7 (Final Score: Lions 42 - Bears 35). The scoring got underway when Anfernee Wilson picked off a LCM pass in Bear territory returning the pick to the Bear 27. This set up a short drive by the Lions that was capped off by a 9 yard TD run by Chevoski Collins on a quarterback keeper. Da Bears answered and tied the game at 7 with a touchdown towards the end of the first quarter. Early in the second quarter, Collins scored again on another QB keeper. The Bears answered again with a TD pass with 8:46 remaining in the half. Collins scored again (his third TD of the night) on a five yard QB keeper. Mind you, these touchdowns I'm telling you about is making a long story short. Each TD by the Lions and the Bears was set up by long time consuming drives. LCM answered again with a TD with just over 3 minutes remaining in the half. By halftime, it was Lions 21, Bears 21. In the third quarter, Chevoski Collins scored another TD on (you guessed it) a QB keeper with 5:23 remaining in the third (Lions 28, Da Bears 21). This is where the Lion defense came through again. The Lion D stopped the Bears, which forced a punt and the Lions drove again with a typical Randy Rowe mostly run generated grinding drive that set up a Marquis Thomas 2 yard TD run with 11 minutes remaining (Lions 35, Bears 21). From my point of view, Marquis Thomas has emerged as the Lions' top running back in this young season. The Lions kicked off and the Bears put together another drive that was completed by a long catch and run for a Bear TD with 9 minutes remaining (Lions 35, Bears 28). The Lions answered with another drive that was capped off by a Marquis Thomas 4 yard TD run with 6:30 remaining in the game (Lions 42, Bears 28). LCM was able to answer one last time with a short TD pass with 3 minutes left. But it was too little, too late. The Lions put the final nail in the LCM's coffin when Brandon Henderson did a beautiful job of snuffing out a LCM onside kick. The Lions took over and ran out the clock. If this was hard for you to keep up with, I understand. I'm not the best writer in the world (but you can see it all visually on this week's Highlight Reel!).
Closing Commentary...
The Lions impressed me this game. No, the defense wasn't perfect, but the Lion D was good enough to do what they had to do and let the offense do their part. There was the Anfernee Wilson interception that set up that first crucial TD of the game. The Lion defense stopped LCM's offense enough to disrupt the dangerous rythym of both offenses trading punches. This gave the Lions a 2 touchdown cushion they needed to ice the game. Special teams wasn't perfect, but they were much improved over last week, and they didn't allow any punts or kickoffs to go the distance. Lastly, the Lion offense was tough as nails. The offense stood in there, and went toe-to-toe with the Bears who had a very decent offense of their own (complete with a very good running back). Chevoski Collins put on a gritty performance with hard runs. Marquis Thomas appears to be Coach Rowe's crucial go to running back. There's a lot of other players on the Lions who played great that I haven't even mentioned, so be sure to see the highlight reel. Next week the Lions will be taking on the Nederland Bulldogs in Nederland. One game at a time. It's district now. It all counts. Let's go Lions.
Willie P. Openshaw, Editor
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