The Lions lost to the Stony Point Tigers in the homecoming game last Friday 24-14.

“As a team, there is always room for improvement,” senior defensive lineman Zeke Garcia said. “Defensively we played pretty well. We let them only have about 250 yards and had 14 tackles for a loss, but we still have a lot more practice to get better.”

Stony Point got on the board first with a quick touchdown and the Lions went behind for the fourth game in a row. The Tigers scored again after a 44-yard pass as they went up 14-0. The Lions gathered a fumble late in the quarter but the first quarter ended 14-0 to the Tigers.

“It’s not so much scoring first, but what I’ve noticed is that the players, they’re willing to fight,” head coach Tim Smith said. “We will fight to the end and it’s not so much scoring first but how much we compete at the end of the game.”

The second quarter started and sophomore quarterback Rashad Carter completed a pass to junior receiver Dalton Flowers who was taken down on the 1-yard line but Carter finished the drive with a 1-yard rushing touchdown to pull the Lions back to 14-7. On the resulting kickoff, the Lions recovered their own kick and senior running back Jonathan Spires ran for a touchdown on the following possession to end the first half with the score tied 14-14.

“At first I was a little bit nervous but after the first couple of plays the nerves went away,” Carter said. “It felt great [scoring], everyone was cheering and my teammates were all hugging and cheering for me and it was a great experience.”

In the third quarter, the Lions failed to find a way to score and the Tigers missed a field goal but increased their lead with another touchdown to go up 21-14 to end the quarter. Stony Point kicked a field goal late in the fourth quarter to increase their lead to 24-14. Despite a late rally by the Lions who drove down the field with their pass plays, the game ended 24-14 to Stony Point.

“We’re going to go back and reinstall and reiterate some of the coaching points we have and go back and do some drills that make our offense work and our defense work,” coach Smith said. “So we’ll go back and clean some stuff up and compete against ourselves to improve and get better.”

Lions will have a bye week this Friday but will return to play next Friday, September 30, at Bible Stadium against the Vista Ridge Rangers starting at 7 p.m.