Observer Sports Blog

The Spring-Smithson Valley game was a spectacular battle. I hate to repeat Joe, but he’s right: The score never tells the whole story. 26-14 can’t fully relate just how determined Spring was to stay in that game. The Lions never gave up. They kept making plays against a precise team which rarely made mistakes.

As head coach Sonny Karas pointed out in the opener against Deer Park, the Lions showed a tremendous focus that was a major contributor to their rain-delayed win. That focus was definitely on display against Smithson Valley. A weaker team would have let that early Rios touchdown break its mental game. The Lions didn’t, and that’s what made the entire game so special.

Kenric McNeal is exciting to watch. When he connected with Kurtis Shaw, you knew they were going to make something happen.

And what about that defense? It only gave up 26 points against one of the top teams in the state. That’s huge.

It was an emotional night, and despite trailing the entire game, nobody believed that the Lions were ever fully out of it – not me, not the crowd, but most importantly, not the team itself.