Lightning Strikes as Lions take Athabasca 41-0

Lions open the season with a win over the Pacers

It would take more than a lightning storm to stop the St. Paul Lions from opening their season with a win over the Athabasca Pacers. Even with the game being called with seven minutes left on the clock in the forth, the Lions took the game 41-0.

“We got off to a good start, fairly quickly, off a deep pass that went for a touchdown,” recalls Head Coach for the St. Paul Lions John Lumby. “Really, our whole line played really well and even some of our young guys, who were new to football, played really well and held their own. We were able to run the ball, throw the ball.” It wasn’t a pure offensive game, explains Coach Lumby, “our defense played really well too. Everyone played well. Special teams played well, too. We were really happy with the win.”

To shut the other team down defensively, that’s a really big feather in our cap. – John Lumby Head Coach St. Paul Lions

The game ended early, thanks to Mother Nature, “only about 60 percent of the game got played because of the lightning. It was a pretty wild storm that came through, and it latest quite awhile, so even if it passed we wouldn’t have been able to play, because it was too dark.” Regardless, the refs called the game at the onset of the storm with the Lions taking the 41-0 win.

Lumby says even with a shutout win, he has mad props for the opposing team and understand they’re going through a rebuilding stage. “Athabasca’s hurting for numbers and they’re rebuilding. It’s not the strongest Athabasca team that we’ve faced.” Although Athabasca has yet to be successful against the Lions, Lumby says there has been closer match-ups in the past. “Coach Pete Burden is a really good coach and he always has some really smart plays offensively, but they didn’t seem to be able to put it together offensively.” Lumby shows the true character of the Lion’s team by being able to humbly speak so positively about his opponents, “I think they’ll get better as they go. They’re a good group of guys and some great athletes.”

The Lions philosophy is to look only one game ahead, “we really want to respect each opponent that we face, so we don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves. Our goal is to reach our potential this year. So, we take it one game at a time. Right now, our goal is to beat Vegreville, because they are coming up next.” The Lions will travel to Vegreville to take on the Vortex Friday night at 5:00 pm.