The Dublin 8th Grade Lions are 1-0 in District after claiming back-to-back wins Thursday, Sept. 26 in DeLeon and against Brady at home Thursday, Oct. 10.
The Lions claimed the DeLeon game 34-20 and started the battle off with the right intensity from the opening kickoff. The Bearcats matched point for point so it was 20-20 at halftime.
Offensive coordinator Hayden Hoerdeman said the coaches told players the second half could go one of two ways. “We could go out there and let Deleon continue putting up points or we could continue to believe in ourselves and come out with the victory,” he said.
“Our boys believed and responded,” he continued. “We had two great scoring drives in the 2nd half and held them scoreless. Our intensity and passion on the field and on the sideline was electric. We clicked both offensively and defensively and the coaches were extremely proud of the boys’ effort and fight.”
Thursday’s game against Brady wasn’t as certain but Hoerdeman kept telling the players they were going to win.
The Lions started off hot by scoring the game’s first touchdown on a punt return to go up 6-0. Brady fired back and scored the next 16 points before halftime.
The 16-6 score stood at the beginning of the fourth quarter.
“We challenged the boys to bring more energy,” said Hoerdeman. “Brady scored within the first couple of minutes of the 4th quarter and we were down 24-6 with around 7 minutes to play, but we didn’t give up hope.”
Dublin snagged a TD followed by a 2-point conversion to bring the score to 24-14. The home team moved the score to 24-22 with another TD and conversion.
“Our defense continued to fight and we had our 3 timeouts and used them all to force a punt,” the coach reported. “We got the ball back with 1:30 remaining. On our first offensive play we scored a TD and converted the 2PT conversion to make it 30-24 with about 1:20 remaining in the game.”
Lion defense held the visitors and forced an interception to end the game.
The 7th grade boys scored 34 points Thursday against a really tough Brady 7th grade. “We lost 52-34 but we showed a lot of improvement and we continue to improve eachweek,”saidHoerdeman. “We are proud of them as well! It was a great game for the 7th graders.”