LFO rally falls short against Chattooga
LFO head coach Bo Campbell said he saw both good and bad during his team’s final preseason tune-up last Tuesday night at Chattooga.
The Warriors scored the first seven points of the game, but gave up 33 unanswered to the Class AA Indians going into the fourth quarter. LFO’s second string scored the final 21 points to pull the Warriors to within five, but the Indians were able to hang on for a 33-28 victory.
“We’ve got a whole new offense that we put in during the spring and we’ve learned a lot of it,” Campbell said after the game. “When we execute it, we do very well. Tonight, I thought there were times where we executed and then there were some times we had people make mistakes.
“It should have been 14-7 or 14-14 at halftime. Instead, we were down 27-7. We had a couple of interceptions and some little minor mistakes, but kids are going to make mistakes, so we just want them to forget about it and move on to the next play.”
LFO quickly quieted the home side, striking for a touchdown less than a minute into the game. Jamillion Womble went up over the top of a defender to haul in a 30-yard pass from Keenan Walker. Then, following a six-year Chase Rizzo run, Walker found Womble on a screen pass out in the flat and the speedy receiver got good blocking from the pulling offensive linemen before scampering 44 yards for a touchdown. Alex Hastick booted the first of four extra points to give LFO a fast 7-0 lead.
Chattooga countered on its first possession. They used a run to convert on thirdand-13 from inside their own 20-yard line and a 39-yard scamper by quarterback Nic Hester moved the ball inside LFO’s 25. Three plays later, facing third-and-14, the Indians completed their only pass attempt of the night as Hester connected with Jalyon Johnson on a 26-yard corner route. Caroline Hodges kicked one of her three extra points to tie things up.
After forcing an LFO punt, Chattooga marched inside the redzone, but the Warrior defense stripped the ball the way from running back Lashaun Lester at the 10-yard line with less than a minute to go in the opening stanza.
The second quarter, however, would belong to the home team.
After forcing another Warrior punt, Hester went 41 yards on the first play of the period to give the Indians the lead. Then, on LFO’s ensuing possession, Chattooga defensive back Bowden Heathcock jumped a route to pick off an intended screen pass and raced 20 yards to quickly extend the lead to 20-7.
Following an exchange of punts, LFO got a 46-pass play from Walker to Rizzo to give the Warriors firstand-goal from the 10. But moments later, a deflected pass fell into the hands of Johnson, who sped 85 yards in the opposite direction to put the Indians up 27-7 and the score stayed that way going into intermission.
Chattooga got the lone touchdown of the third quarter as quarterback Brody Mobbs got loose for a 52yard TD run with 3:27 left in the period.
Both teams put in their junior varsity players to start the next series and the Warriors moved crisply down the field. A 17-yard run by quarterback Alex Slatton was followed by an 18-yard pass to Jordan Nintirat and Gabe Helton capped the drive with a 9-yard touchdown run on the first play of the fourth quarter.
The LFO defense then forced a three-and-out and the Warrior offense drove 62 yards in just five plays with Slatton covering the final 24 yards on a keeper to make it 33-21 with 6:50 to play.
A sack by Bryce Goins forced the Indians to punt with less than three minutes to go and it took the Warriors just two plays to find the endzone again. Slatton ran for 13 yards before dropping a pass over the top of the defense to a wide-open