Atlanta Georgia – The Maroon Devil football team opened their season last Friday with a 25-6 win over Life Christian Charter. Lot’s of people have asked me about the game, and I’ll be honest with you, my standard reply has been – I have never seen anything like that in 30 plus years of involvement in high school sports. On top of that there is just no way to describe all of it and do it justice. From playing most of the 2nd quarter in the dark, to having only 4 officials and suffering through a 51 minute halftime when the finally functioning lights went out.
As for the game itself, it was very hard to tell much of anything about either team. Life Christian was a talented and in some cases gifted bunch of athletes, who from my perspective appeared to have no idea what they were doing. Those type of opponents make it really tough on teams that are well prepared, as the Maroon Devils were.
The Maroon Devils scored 3 touchdowns in the 2nd quarter and added a third in the opening minutes of the 4th quarter. Life Christians lone score came midway through the 4th quarter.
It was the usual suspects for the Maroon Devils. Quarterback Damian Lossiah scored the 1st touchdown of the season for Swain. Lossiah scored on a 1 yard plunge, the point after attempt failed. Next Bryce Sain got in on the act. Sain scored on a 26 yard scamper, again the point after failed. Ian Brooks wrapped up the 1st half scoring with a 2 yard run, the point after was no good, leaving the score 18-0 at the half.
Carson Taylor scored the Devils lone 2nd half touchdown on a 13 yard run. Gavin Lanning kicked the extra point, giving Swain a 25-0 lead.
Senior Thomas Allen was big on defense for the Devils. Allen blocked a punt, which set up the first Swain touchdown. Allen also recovered a pair of fumbles and forced a pair of fumbles as well. Lucas Brown and Noah Romero led Swain with 7 tackles each, while Cody Long finished with 6 tackles.
On offense Bryce Sain finished with a game high 115 yards on 13 carries. Ian Brooks carried the ball 8 times for 35 yards, while Damian Lossiah had 34 yards on 19 carries. Lossiah completed one pass to Connor Hyatt, which was good for 16 yards.