SUMMARY

The District Championship was on the line last night as we played the Lutheran North Lions in a make-up game originally scheduled for Thursday, September 3, 2009 (which was postponed due to lightning).

On paper, the Lions outmatched the Cougars. Their size on the offensive and defensive line averaged 6’1” and 210 lbs. The biggest lineman came in at 6’4” weighing 240 lbs.  Lutheran North’s starting running back was also back. This was the third year we’ve seen him as he continues to develop into a great football player. He has great size and speed making the Lions a tough team to stop. Inspired by a clip from the movie Rocky IV, our boys came out with a desire to knock off the bigger team (which had one their two previous games by the score of 48-0 both times). The game was a battle from start to finish.

We took the opening kickoff back close to the 50 yard line.  A few plays later, Darien Simms ran the ball in for a touchdown to put the Cougars up 6-0. Bobby Stewart added a two-point conversion by kicking the ball through the uprights. We scored 2 more times in the second quarter and Lutheran North scored once to make the halftime score 22-8 in favor of NCS. Although we were up, we know it was far from being over. Lutheran North scored one touchdown in the third quarter and one more in the fourth quarter to bring the score to a 22-22 tie. As they tried to tack on their extra point, Kourtlin Flournoy and Trevion Harris busted through the line to block the attempt and kept the score tied with 5 minutes left in the game. We managed to put one more drive together and score a touchdown mid-way through the 4th quarter (NCS – 28, LN – 22). Our extra point attempt fell short leaving Lutheran North about 3 minutes with an opportunity to tie or win the game. Due to penalties and great play on defense, we had several chances to stop the Lions, but they converted several 4th down plays to keep their drives moving. With about 90 seconds left in the game, Lutheran North faced a 3rd and 4 at the Northland 30 yard line. The Black Swarm defense held them off. With a 4th and 2 from the NCS 28 (and no time outs), Lutheran North tried to sweep the ball off the edge, but were denied from a handful of Cougars.  Darien Simms took 2 snaps in a victory formation and the game was over.

It was one of the most exciting games this coaching staff has ever been a part of.  Although it was an extremely physical game, our guys continued to help the other team off the ground as they displayed a lot of character and class throughout. We (the coaches) were so proud of how the boys handles themselves last night.

Darien Simms completed all 4 of his passes for 56 yards and one touchdown (to Trevion Harris). Darien also rushed the ball for 165 yards on 12 carries and 3 touchdowns.  Kourtlin Flournoy and Trevion also added 15 yards rushing a piece. On defense, we had 11 players make at least one tackle led by Trevion Harris with 8 and Zach Mitchell with 7.  We had 16 tackles for loss including 5 TFL by Kourtlin. Trevion also added one sack to his stats.