Freshmen teams battle Rouse
Lion pride covered the crowd while defense and offense played strongly against Rouse
Blue team starts off their game on offense. The game would later be cancelled due to lightning.
Bible Stadium was as lit up as lightning when the freshmen football teams played against the school’s rival, the Rouse Raiders. While both teams were able to keep the Raiders at bay for most of the games, Rouse barely slipped by. The Red team lost with a score of 8-0 and the Blue team’s game ended early with an unfinished score of also 8-0.
“We improved overall,” freshmen coach Kyle Sturgell said. “There were big, big improvements and that’s what we’re looking for week to week.”
Taking the lead defensively, the Red team kept a constant and firm defense through the whole game that gave Rouse a run for their money. Keeping the score of 0-0 for nearly four quarters, defensive back Brendon Spyers and quarterback Diego Segura were able to keep the ball moving in Leander’s favor. Although the Red team’s offense had been a bit slow in the first half, adjustments and inspiring words were made and said during halftime that led to improvements in following plays. The last minute of the game however, had not been in so much favor to Leander. Rouse had managed to narrowly slip by Leander’s defense with :50 seconds left on the clock in the fourth quarter and left the final score at 8-0 with Rouse taking the win.
“Our defense kind of broke at the last minute,” Red team lead defensive back Brendon Spyers said.”But everything before the last two minutes we were on lock-down. We did good.”
The Blue team on the other hand, had their parade rained on, quite literally. Before the call of a 30 minute delay and eventual cancellation of the game one minute before halftime, energy and cheers were bouncing off the field and stands. Everyone from the crowd to the cheerleaders to the players to the coaches had been been in high spirits to support the Blue team. Like the Red team, the defense started off on the field vigorously with multiple interceptions and tackles from outside linebacker Taylor Colton against running plays that kept the Raiders out of Lion territory.
“The ball got snapped over my head down to the five yard line so we got sacked,” Blue team quarterback Rashad Carter said. “We tried to punt it and they caught it, but we stopped them right there.”
Offense had followed defense in performance on the field and helped move the ball at Leander’s will to keep the score at an even 0-0 and while the Blue team was able to get into Rouses’ ten-yards twice, they fell short in scoring. With light rain and a couple of lightning strikes in the distance, the Raiders had broken through the Lions and scored to make the score a total of 8-0 with 1:21 left on the clock in the second quarter. The lightning warning alarm started to blare through Bible Stadium right after Rouses touchdown and ultimately led to the game being cancelled with an unfinished score of 8-0.
“They’re both very tight games and we didn’t get to finish the Blue [team’s game],” Sturgell said. “But one of the best things about the Blue team was that they were very disappointed we didn’t get to. Both sides of the ball are getting better every week and we showed in this game what we’re capable of.”
The freshmen teams will play against Georgetown at home in Bible Stadium. The Red team’s game will begin at 5:30pm and the Blue team’s at 7:30pm.
Hey, I'm Aimee and seeing as this is my first and only year on The Roar newspaper staff, I am extremely humbled and excited to interact and write about...
