Lloyd 38 Walton Verona 33

Lloyd controlled this game. Walton Verona scored on a couple punt returns, a long run and a stolen ball on a play, all by William Lattimore, #27 for Walton. The Lloyd defense shut down Walton completely in the second half. Walton looks to me like they lack speed. Walton struggled in the passing game when Lloyd shut down their running game. They do have some good size up front, especially #71 Moser who Lloyd had trouble with all night.

 

Lloyd's QB, Dexter Smith was a blur running past the Walton defense and he delivers a blow. Lloyd has a very good wide receiver in #15, Tommy Mejolagbe. Smith throws a nice ball with a lot of zip on it. Lloyd has a couple other quick little backs. They put the back in motion and let Smith read the play, then use their speed to make plays.

 

There was an interesting play at the end of the game. Lloyd was on their own 45, 4th down with 14 seconds left with the score 38-31 in favor of Lloyd. They looked like they were going to go for it with Dexter Smith in shotgun formation. Smith took the snap, turned and ran for his own end zone. A couple Walton players did chase after him. Smith got into the end zone and kept running along the back line of the end zone. One of the Walton players ran after him and as he got close, Smith stepped out of the back of the end zone. It worked perfect except one thing - Smith stepped out for the safety with 1 second left on the clock. If he had just run another couple steps he would have run all 14 seconds off the clock. Lloyd had kick, did a squib to a lineman and that is how the game ended.

Based on what I saw tonight, I would consider Lloyd a serious threat in their 2A district.

I agree with this assessment. After the lightning delay Walton never left the locker room. Not a good effort by the Bearcats at all. Lloyd played harder and looked like they wanted it more. Time to regroup for the Bearcats.