The Lions are ready to rumble this season and they return with many key features. The Lions have a tough schedule ahead, but each week they will continue to improve and become better players. The first game of the season was played against The Benton Rangerettes at home. This game was played on August 24th at 7pm.

Each week Carterville Crazies establishes a theme that they try and promote everyone to participate in. For that game, the theme was Neon. Coincidentally, the power went out towards the end of the game and everyone was glowing. Everyone thought it was on purpose due to the theme, but we later found out that it was an accident. The lights got too hot. Once the lights came back on and the boys resumed the game, the Lions lead the Rangerettes by a couple touchdowns. Junior Charlie Hagan who is apart of the crazies said, “It was best! As a whole the event allowed us to become one in cheering for the team. We never stopped having fun because of the power, in fact, we started having a better time. The power outage united the Crazies in cheering for our favorite team.”  As the game became closer to the end, everyone stood up and began to cheer extremely loud.

The Lions won the first game of the season 20-7. Every single player did a fantastic job and played very well. Senior Quarterback Keaton Pestka said, “So far the season is going great. We’ve found what our weaknesses are and now all we can do is allow our coaches to teach us how to work around them and prepare each week for our next competition.”

The following week’s game was played against the schools biggest rival, The Herrin Tigers. The theme for this game was USA so everyone was decked out in red, white and blue. Herrin’s student section also decided to do the same exact theme so everyone was supporting America that night. The game was intense, each team would be up by one touchdown and then the other would score and then the game was tied. After halftime, the Lions just couldn’t keep up. The Tigers were up by two touchdowns. The Lions fall short to the Tigers 49-35. Both teams played a very good game.

The Lions next game was at home against Murphysboro. The theme was Camo night. It was very difficult seeing everyone. The game continuously was delayed due to the weather and it ended up getting canceled and moved until Monday Night. The Lions resumed play and struggled to score. The Lions ended up losing 21-19.

Next up was the Duquoin Indians. The theme for this game was Cowboys vs. Indians. The Lions struggled most of this game and could not seem to score. The Indians came out on top 41-0.

This past week’s game was against the Anna-Jonesboro Wildcats. It was Carterville’s Homecoming Game. The theme was Carterville attire. The Lions score the first points on the board, but the Wildcats fight back. At halftime, the score was 15-14, the Wildcats were up by one at the very end of the quarter. The second half of the game was a struggle for the Lions, they were not able to score. The Wildcats win 28-14.

The Lions travel to Nashville next week and the Carterville Crazies hope to see you there.