Don't Back Down

In the North Carolina 4AA Semifinals, the Independence Patriots took on the West Charlotte Lions for bragging rights of the city, and to see who would represent the Western half of the state next week in the championship. It was also a rematch of their game earlier this season, where the Lions did well, but ultimately they couldn't stay with the Patriots for the whole game.

In the end, it was a game for the ages. The Big I, which routinely scores dozens of points per game and humiliates their opponents was played tough by West Charlotte, and this one came down to the final seconds.

Last week, the Patriots allowed 28 points to East Burke, and that meant that it was going to be a long week. Independence rarely allows 28 points (in fact, they allowed more than that only twice this season.

The first time was in the loss to Cincinnati Elder that ended the 109-game winning streak. The other was to West Charlotte the week after that game, when the Lions scored 32 (the Patriots won that one, however). So to see 28 points put up on them in a playoff was highly unusual. It wasn't about to happen again. The Lions scored only 8. In fact, they only had about 140 yards of offense.

What made this a game, however, was that the Patriots only scored 10. That the Lions could hold the high-scoring Independence offense to just 10 points is a huge win. It's just unfortunate that they couldn't actually pull out the victory.

It was also refreshing that the teams didn't fight after the game. They went up and congratulated each other. Our kids, that are several years younger than these, and play on much less competitive teams, aren't always so sportsmanlike. Nice.

Independence plays New Bern next Saturday at Wake Forest for a chance at their eighth state title in a row.