Lions Use the Force to Defeat South Carolina

[lionsroar]

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Lions Use the Force to Defeat South Carolina
By: Matthew Hester
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COLUMBUS, GA (May 9, 2009) – Behind Damian Daniels three-interception night, the Columbus Lions of the American Indoor Football Association moved to 7-2 after defeating the South Carolina Force 52-49 for the second straight week.

The Lions defense targeted South Carolina QB Andrew Webb once again on the evening forcing him out of the pocket and into bad passes on his way to completing 12 of 31 passes for 183 yards and three interceptions all by Lions defensive back Damian Daniels. Overall Columbus has collected seven interceptions off of Webb, five coming from Daniels alone.

Getting his first road start of the season, quarterback Kevin Huff led the Lions offensively completing 19 of his 36 passes for 223 yards and 4 touchdowns while adding another on the ground.

Gerald Gales was the leading receiver finishing the night with 7 receptions for 112 yards and 1 touchdown. The Lions ground game, which had been stagnant in the last couple of outings, took off with Richard Fitzhugh finding some room with his 8 rushes for 46 yards and 1 touchdown.

The Lions took a 13-point lead into the break only to see South Carolina crawl their way back in the second half thanks in large part to 13 penalties accumulated by Columbus. Columbus had to stage off a 22 point fourth quarter barrage by the Force that included scoring half their touchdown total on the evening in the quarter alone.

Force’s wide receiver Byron Roger scored the second of his three touchdowns on their first possession of the 4th and kicker Jad Dean would add the extra point and his second uno on the night dropping the Lions lead down to 42-34.

But a quick 26-yard touchdown pass from Kevin Huff to Tirone Morris midway through the 4th put the Lions back up by 14. Not to be outdone, Force QB Andrew Webb hit Byron Roger from 30 yards out for his third score cutting the Force deficit down to 7.

However Lions kicker Carlos Martinez would prove to be the difference nailing a 20-yard field goal with 1:50 left to go giving Columbus a 52-42 lead. South Carolina added another touchdown score but proved to be too little too late as that final field goal by Martinez who finished with 16 points was the deciding factor.

Columbus will get to enjoy their second bye week of the season, the first since late March and will prepare for their next game on May 23rd as they travel to take on the Baltimore Mariners (4-3). Fans can follow by logging on to www.columbuslions.net and clicking on the listen live icon.

:smileylions:

[edoj1]

Sounds like it was a good game look forward to seeing the lions on may 23 at the 1st Mariner Arena

[lionsroar]

It is likley I will be at this game. I have 2 Digital projector installation jobs in the area to take care of the week of the 18th so I'm trying to schedule it to where I can finish everything up and watch this game by the end of the week. Should be interesting to see If I can pull it off!

[edoj1]

I f you stop by our tailgate area and say hi

GO MARINERS

[Greg B.]

We had a great time at the game. It was looking like a blow-out until the Force came on strong in the 2nd half and made it a close game, coming down to the wire. Saw coach's wife, and their new baby. The crowd was unfortunately small, but they really get behind their team. The fans were loud and had fun, but no one was ever rude or obnoxious. There were lots of penalties, and we all had fun yelling at the refs.

One observation: the Bi-Lo Center is a top-notch facility, but it thought it was odd that their field was a recycled AFL turf (Austin Wranglers), and the still have the wranglers logo in the endzones. I guess those things are really expensive, so I understand buying used turf, but can't they be painted over?

[dagr814ever]

:smileyforce:

The team owns the turf and it is a top notch turf. However, for a couple of hundred bucks they could at least cover up the Wrangler logo. Another couple of hundred to put their own logo or name in place.

FORCE didn't get the best home schedule. Two of their other home games have been Easter weekend and now Mother's Day weekend, which also has NASCAR at Darlington.

The FORCE has good talent for a first year team in this league. The management needs to realize that they have to make the experience good for the fans so that they want to come to the games. A little advertisement and some promtoions could go a long way toward salvaging this season and making next year one that the people will be looking forward to seeing.

The local media doesn't help when the game day article focuses on Columbus and their averaging 70 points a game, which makes the fringe fan think it might not be worth watching. Of course if management isn't feeding them information about the team and a preview of the game these type things happen.

As far as the team goes, cutting down on some of the illegal defense penalties could really get this team into place to dominate games instead of giving their opponents second chances time after time. Hopefully this will get better in the second segment of their season after a bye week.

Starting the season with two bye weeks and then having to play eight weeks in a row might have looked good from management view but spreading out those three bye weeks and keeping the team healthy would have made a lot more sense from a team perspective.