The Tallwood Lions varsity football team won their game against the First Colonial Pirates by a score of 22-16.

The Tallwood Lions 2019 varsity football team is having a season that is…well…probably not what they believed it was going to be. Going into their October 18th home game against First Colonial, the Lions had a 2-4 record. That includes home wins over Green Run and Kempsville, and losses against Landstown, Salem, Ocean Lakes, and Bayside. Though the team had not been playing well this season, there is certainly a boatload of talent on the team, and there have been many big plays made throughout the season. And against First Colonial, there was potential for the team to have a very good game.

Luckily for Tallwood, their matchup was very favorable. First Colonial came into the game with an abysmal 0-8 record. They had not scored a single point since a 21-15 overtime loss to Kellam High on August 29th. The Pirates had been outscored 242-0 in their other seven games, including a 61-0 loss to Salem on October 11th. The defense gave up an average of 32.9 points per game and the offense scored 1.9 points per game. Tallwood’s offense scored 14.8 points per game and the defense gave up 25.5 points per game. Though those numbers weren’t the best for a football team, the separation in statistics, record, and talent created a very obvious mismatch.

Because the game fell on Tallwood’s pink-out night, the stands were filled and the crowd was electric, and a factor in the game’s outcome. Though the stats created a mismatch that favored Tallwood, the game was much closer than projected. The Lions won the game 22-16, with 4th quarter defense stops needed to close out the win. With the win, the Lions improve their record to 3-4 and will travel to face Cox High School on October 25th.