Lions Fight Hard, But Fall to Timber Creek

Before they even stepped on the bus to travel down to Sicklerville for their game against the Timber Creek Chargers, the Lacey Lions knew they were going to have their hands full.

Lacey was in an unusual position as they held the eighth and final seed against the Chargers, the number one seed in the South Jersey Group III playoffs; the same tournament they won in 2010. 

This year, the tables were turned however as Timber Creek shutout the Lions 23-0, on the chilly Friday night.

The difference was three explosive plays that sparked the Chargers to victory.

The start of the game went as well as Lacey could have hoped for. The opening kickoff pinballed off a Charger and the Lions took over on the Timber Creek 39 yard line. Christian Tutela soon gained 30 yards, but the drive resulted in a missed field goal. A 13 play Charger drive died at the Lions 17 yardline with a turnover on downs, but Lacey was forced to a three and out. On the ensuing punt, a 57 yard touchdown run gave the Chargers the lead.

Later, with 7:52 to play in the second quarter, a devastating, one play, 87 yard touchdown run put Lacey into a two score hole.

With 51 seconds left in the half and Lacey driving, attempting to cut the deficiet in half, Tom Kelly dropped back to pass. A throw over the middle was jumped by a defender and brought back 83 yards for a touchdown, giving Timber Creek a sound 21-0 half time lead.

"Against a team like that, with a lot of speed, it's tough," said Lacey head coach Lou Vircillo, "They really swarm to the ball on defense."

The speed never was more apparent than on the aforementioned plays.

Certainly a positive for Lacey was their defense, and the coach confirmed it.

"We only allowed one defensive touchdown toinight, those guys played very hard. The second half was even other than us giving them two points on a safety, (Timber Creek) knew they were in a battle."

Perhaps the most frustrating facet of the game was the Chargers defense clogging up the running lanes, bottling up Lacey running back Kyle Spatz most of the night. Spatz only had two carries for more than seven yards, one going for 10 and the other 24 yards.

"With such a young team we knew we were going to have some touble, it takes some time to learn the offense," said Vircillo, "Coming into the season we didn't know what kind of personality we would have. We eventually mustered a running game but it gets difficult when crowd the line."

The loss drops the Lions to 4-6. It is the first time the Lions will not finish a season over .500 since 2004, however Lacey will hope to replicate a similar turnaround as they made a championship game appearance in 2005.