From the opening kickoff, when senior Gryphon Troy Valdez returned the ball 63 yards to the King Lions 22 yard line, it was all uphill from there for the Sickles Gryphon’s.

“We played hard” said Head Coach Brian Turner of the Sickles Gryphon’s. The Gryphon’s increased their season record to 2-1 with this 42-12 win over King, while the Lions fall to 0-4.

Throughout the game, sophomore running back, Ray Ray McCloud III and junior linebacker, Josh Black did what was needed to lead their team to victory with Black’s two blocked punts setting up two Gryphon touchdowns early in the game.  McCloud was impressive, exploding for a 71 yard rushing touchdown and an additional 61 yards bringing his total for the night to 132 yards on 12 attempts.

“We had lots of good players tonight” said Coach Turner. One of those good players in addition to McCloud and Black is senior wide receiver Bilal Salat. Salat completed the night with 41 yards and 2 touchdowns to add to the lead for the Sickles Gryphon’s.

“We have to clean things up and we had a hard time with this team tonight. We had poor coaching and I was disappointed in the physical performance of our team.” Said Coach Turner.

Even though Sickles never once let up on the Lions, Coach Turner expressed that he was still unsatisfied with the team’s performance even considering that his defense was stout:  punt blocks, sacks, and huge amounts of pressure by Black.

“Josh is a great player. He’s a huge mismatch for most teams. He is hard to stop when he’s at the top of his game” Said Coach Turner.
“The only way we can prepare for next week’s game is practice and to watch the game film” said Coach Turner.

Next week, the Gryphon’s will travel to Brandon high school (0-3) and the Lions will face off against Strawberry Crest (2-2) at home.

– Evan Abramson