The Hays Rebels defeated the Lions at home last Friday by a score of 24 to 31.

“We rushed for 397 yards and on a good night a team will rush for 200 yards,” head coach Tim Smith said. “We were running the ball very well, but we did have over 110 yards of passing offense which put us over 500 yards for the night.”

The Rebel offense got on the board first in less than two minutes into the game when they scored off an run that was over 50 yards to put them in the lead 0-7. The Lion offense answered shortly after however, when sophomore Rashad Carter ran for a long rushing touchdown to tie the game 7-7. Hays finished the first quarter with a 77-yard touchdown to put them in the lead 7-14.

“We need to work on not turning the ball over and converting on third down,” senior Jai Garcia said. “For the most part we came out fast and executed.”

In the second quarter senior Kyle Murdock kicked a 35-yard field goal to put the Lions only 4 points down at 10-14. Despite forcing the Rebels to punt inside their own end zone twice, the defense conceded a 28-yard field goal. 10 seconds later the half ended with the Lions down 10-17.

“We did very well when Rashad [Carter] got hurt,” senior Jonathan Spires said. “We had to rely heavily on our running backs so we just kept running it because Hays didn’t have an answer.”

In the third quarter Spires ran the ball in from the 2-yard line to tie up the game 17-17. However, the Rebels regained the lead after a quick touchdown. The Lion offense responded again with one minute left in the quarter when Spires rushed the ball in for close range again to tie the game at 24-24.

“It felt good that our offense was doing what we need to do to get the job done,” Spires said.

Hays again took the lead at the start of the fourth quarter after a 25-yard touchdown run, 24-31 Rebels. Hays’ defense intercepted the ball twice after this to kill the game off and win the game 24-31.

“During this age of football 20 points a game is pretty good defense,” Smith said. “What we need to do is eliminate the big plays, our strength is our defensive line and LB’s. We are young in the secondary, but we have a couple of seniors showing those young players how to do it.”

Following this, the Lions played the Lake Travis Cavaliers on Friday the 21st and were defeated 0-63.