Lion’s Comeback Falls Short

Lions Football went on the road for its 4^th straight road game of the season, to face Dakota College at Bottineau. Going into the game the Lions had lost its last two and was 2-2 on the year.  The game would be yet another high scoring affair for the Lions and Bottineau.

The fireworks started early with Bottineau on their first play from scrimmage scored a touchdown on a 65 yard touchdown run by Mathias Thomas. With the successful extra point the Lumberjacks held an early 7-0 lead just 13 seconds into the game. The Lions would answer with an eight play 67 yard touchdown drive capped by a nine yard touchdown pass from Jason Elliott (Thedford, NE) to Shean Bosworth (Winchester, IN). A failed extra point left the Lions down 6-7. Bottineau would add their second rushing touchdown of the first quarter with a three yard run by Jose Sanchez. With the score, the Lumberjacks pushed their lead to 14-6. Donald Knight (Apopka, FL) would score on a five yard run with just 17 seconds left in the first quarter, another missed extra put the Lions down 12- 14 at the end of the 1^st quarter.

            The scoring continued in the 2^nd quarter with Bottineau scoring first on a Mathias Thomas 31 yard touchdown run. The score put the Lumberjacks on top 20-12. Bottineau’s defense would be the next to score on a 20 yard fumble recovery for a touchdown by Babjide Adeniyi, pushing their lead to 27-12. The Lions defense followed suit scoring a touchdown of their own on a fumble recovery in Bottineau’s end zone. Nate Pfitzer (Omak, WA) caused the fumble in the end zone and Jose Casanova (Weslaco, TX) jumped on it for the score. The score at half was Lions 18 Bottineau 27.

The 3^rd quarter saw Bottineau adding two touchdowns, one on a Babjide Adeniyi 55 yard interception return and the other one on a Steven Carlson seven yard run. The two scores gave the Lumberjacks a 41 to 18 lead. The Lions still had some fight left in them, scoring on a 27 yard pass to Shean Bosworth from Brandon Welch (Orlando, FL). At the end of the 3^rd the Lions were down 41 to 26.

The Lions would battle in the 4^th quarter to score another touchdown on a nine yard pass to Shean Bosworth from Brandon Welch, pulling the Lions close 41-32 with just under four minutes to play. After a failed on-side kick attempt the clock would wind down and the Lions would drop their 3^rd straight road game of the year giving them a 2-3 record on the year.

The Lions and Lumberjacks combined for a total of 32 penalties for 388 yards. (TBC- 13-113; DCB-19-275) The Lions offense would put up 337 yards of total offense led by junior quarterback Brandon Welch who went 21 of 45 for 304 yards and two touchdowns. Senior Wide Receiver Shean Bosworth caught nine passes for 169 yards for three touchdowns. Cole White (Grass Valley, CA) led the Lions defense with 13 total tackles and one tackle for loss and Chance Baker (Norco, CA) added eight total tackles and one tackle for loss. The Lions next game is home on Saturday, October 8^th against Peru State. Kick-Off will be 1pm.