Granite Bay Grizzlies Take on Reed Raiders in Opening Game

Friday August 27 marked the opening game for the Granite Bay Grizzlies Varsity football team. The 2010-11 Fall Season began against the Reed High School Raiders which proved to be an intense battle for the Grizzlies although they dominated the first half of the game.

The Grizzlies started strong in the first quarter with a score on a safety for two points. In the next series the Grizzlies scored a touchdown pass made by quarterback Brendan Keeney to Correy Brehm  making the score 9—0  in the first 8 minutes of the game.

The Grizzlies continued to lay on the touchdown passes caught by Matt Kasner, Chris Campbell and Danny Thomas leading the game 29—0.

Showing some fight, the Raiders scored 12 points on the Grizzlies before the half making for a much closer ball game.

In the second half the Grizzlies kicked off to the Raiders and the defense held them getting a hold of the ball and making it to the end zone to score for a 24 point lead. The Grizzlies threw an intercepted pass on the next series making the game 36—18.

The defense made a defensive touch down by knocking the ball out of the Raiders quarterback’s hands which was recovered by Ashwin Subramanian, but on the next kick off the Raiders ran the ball down the field for a touchdown making the score 42—24 and ending the game with an 18 point lead by the Grizzlies.

After the game offensive coach Mike Lynch said, “We weren’t surprised by what they were doing… they’re good athletes… they matched up very favorably with us size wise and our guys did a very good job protecting our quarterback.”

 Head coach Ernie Cooper said he wants to work on making the team more balanced. “We had no running touchdowns tonight… we had 5 passing touchdowns… and we scored on the fumble recovery in the end zone.”

Cooper also said later that there were just ten men on the field for one of the kick-off returns. “We were trying to get some guys in the game and we just messed up… we’ll look at the film and we’ll figure out how to correct it,” Cooper said.

The team also experienced some minor cramps their first game taking some of the players off the field. “Because of the hot weather all week, their tanks weren’t full going in and that’s how you get cramps…. So we really have to work on hydration,” Cooper said

Lynch agreed that hydration was a key factor in the game as well. “Our guys need to eat nutritionally. They need to get a lot of potassium in their diet.”

Overall, Cooper thought the team played well and made clear to the players that “everyone on the team is important whether or not you’re a starter doesn’t mean you’re not important.”