Coakley looking for a cleaner Leon performance against Godby

Leon defensive back James Peterson celebrates a stop on Mosley’s
offense.
Photo by Tyriq Hill

By St. Clair Murraine
Outlook writer

At the end of last Friday’s 27-13 victory over Mosley High School, coach Tim Coakley lamented about several things that Leon High School’s football team has to clean up during the next week of practice.
Coakley was bothered by penalties, two that caused touchdowns to be called back. He was concerned too about the number of plays that the Lions’ secondary gave up.

 
It was all cerebral, said safety Justin Peters and should be an easy fix before Leon faces Godby on Friday night at Cox Stadium.

 
“It was a lot of mental mistakes and careless errors,” said Peters, whose interception with under 10 seconds on the clock stopped a potential Mosley scoring drive. “I think we have to take practice a little more seriously. Sometimes in practice we come out flat and sometimes we take plays off and we shouldn’t be doing that.

 
“We get so caught up in the run game and we forget about the pass.”

 
Thankfully, the Lions’ defense was too tenacious for the Dolphins, especially in the first half when Mosley couldn’t get on the scoreboard. Two field goals of 42 and 37 yards by Jack Driggers kept Leon on top 6-0 at intermission.

 
Mosley’s defense was just as harassing, creating some challenges for the Lions’ quarterback Tyron Glasco.

 
“They were throwing different stunts from what we had seen on film,” he said. “But at the half we regrouped and picked up what we were doing.”

 
But it wasn’t until the third quarter.

 
Leon got its first touchdown when Kyler Laing scored from 10 yards out. Driggers’ PAT put the Lions up 13-0 in the third quarter.

 
Then after on the ensuing Leon possession, a holding call on the Lions brought back a 75-yard thing of beauty by Dorrell James.

 
Leon later had another potential TD called back on penalties, but Coakley still had praise for his defense.

 
“Our defense has really played well all year,” he said. “Our team is a pretty good team and a resilient team.”