SIBLEY – The Lakeside Warriors were at home for the first time this season, and played well defensively against an explosive Plain Dealing team, despite falling 32-6 in the game.
For the Warriors, it’s a sign of progress for a young team breaking in some new faces and lacking depth.
“Plain Dealing has a good team,” Lakeside head coach Joey Pesses said. “They had a bunch of good athletes and fired off hard defensively.”
On defense, Pesses was proud of the effort and tenacity shown by his bunch.
“We did a great job,” Pesses said. “We put our defense in a bind by not generating enough offense, but our guys rallied to the ball much more aggressively this week, we didn’t just stand their for Plain Dealing. The score isn’t vindictive of it, because they were on the field for three quarters of the game, but we played much, much better.”
Pesses said he thought all 11 members of the defensive unit played good games, but singled out the efforts of Jake Gray, Chris Brantley, Josh Prince and Frankie Chanler.
“They all played well,” Pesses said. “I could single out all of them. That’s what we’ve been looking for, of course you’re never satisfied when you lose.”
Early in the game Lakeside was sharp to start the game, but the Plain Dealing defense stiffened.
“We were driving on them pretty well,” Pesses said. “We missed some opportunities early, we threw a little dump pass that got tipped around before they intercepted it and took it back. That was a 14-point swing, but it was a much better team effort for us.”
Chris Brantley has been a bright spot for the Warrior offense, getting into the end zone from the fullback spot last week against Ringgold, and again this week against Plain Dealing. He has 125 yards and two touchdowns on the young season.
Jake Gray finished with 10 tackles for the Warriors from his middle linebacker spot and junior Josh Prince also stepped up defensively.
Next week, the Warriors will travel to take on Grambling High School.