By Marion Valanoski
For The Daily Item
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COAL TOWNSHIP — Lourdes Regional Cory Houser summed up his first postgame interview Saturday at Leo A. Mulhall Stadium in three words: bigger, faster, stronger.
He also could have added extremely athletic.
Mount Zion Baptist ventured to the heart of coal country a relative unknown as a football program and short on numbers. However, following the Saints’ performance against Lourdes in its 38-0 nonconference victory, they leave having earned the respect of both Houser and the team they vanquished with relative ease.
The Saints took advantage of their speedy receivers and several Red Raiders’ miscues to jump out to an 18-0 halftime lead and never looked back in the season opener for both squads.
Lourdes fell behind 6-0 in the first quarter when Quincy Lewis found Maurice Liscomb behind the secondary for a 52-yard touchdown with 34 seconds left in the period. A two-point conversion pass fell short, but the visitors grabbed a lead they would never relinquish. Two plays into the second period following a fumble recovery Malcolm Gas took a screen pass and simply outran the Red Raiders defensive backs for a 53-yard touchdown and 12-0 advantage, and after another miscue by the home squad, the Saints upped Lourdes’ deficit to 18-0 at the intermission when Liscomb outjumped two defenders near the end line for a 12-yard TD with 1:05 prior to the break.
“I thought we played good defense in the first half but couldn’t generate any offense,” Houser said. “They just crowded the line of scrimmage and had such a great rush and our line did not block very well. They were so quick and we didn’t have an answer for that speed on either side of the line. We hurt ourselves with too many mistakes that gave them the ball, and that quarterback had all the moves.
“In my four years here I don’t remember our defense not being able to ever tackle the quarterback.”
The Saints, who matched the Red Raiders in total of players (18), far exceeded their hosts in terms of athleticism and team speed. No matter how many times the Lourdes defense was in position to make a tackle, all it took was a shake-and-bake move by Lewis, who relied more on pure athleticism than football savy to make a certain loss turn into a huge gain.
The Red Raiders were also hurt by several injuries in the opening half, especially to standout freshman Michael Gilger, who had to sit out most of the opening quarter with a cut that would not stop bleeding.
Mount Zion put the contest out of reach in the second half as Rod Green grabbed a fumble in mid-air and raced 91 yards for a touchdown for a 24-0 third-quarter lead, and in the fourth period, Gas bolted 89 yards with Lewis running for the two-point conversion and a 32-0 lead. Liscomb capped the scoring in the mismatch with an eight-yard fumble return for six points.
“When you are winning 30-0 and you break a leg, you don’t want to leave the game but when you are down 30-0 a hangnail becomes a problem,” Houser said. “We learned a lesson and know we have to go back to the drawing board. ... We looked good in the first half but we lost our composure when the lead ballooned.
