The Foley Lions put the big hurt on the Lake City Christian Academy Eagles blanking the Florida crew 56-0 at Ivan Jones Stadium.  The fifth-ranked Lions improved their winning strike to five games (5-0, 3-0 6A Region 2) and they will be headed into Thursday’s ESPN2 nationally televised game fully confident against second-ranked Daphne. 

This game started out on a poor note for the deflated Eagles on their first possession when a poor punt snap flew over the head of Lake City’s punter and was recovered by Lions senior Tripp Blackmon in the end zone for a touchdown, two minutes into the game.

After that blooper, the rest can be described as simply Lions’ dominance. 

A well-oiled machine running on all cylinders, the near perfect Lions’ offense and defense racked up 42 points in the first half courtesy of senior quarterback Devin Smith and company, and the Stone Wall Jackson-like defense that made the Eagles offense look paltry, at best. 

Eagles quarterback John Kelly attempted five passes without a single completion in the first half of action and the running game barely edged out five yards on 16 carries with more than a handful of the carries in the negatives. 

Kelly would complete one pass in the second half for 8 yards, and the Eagles’ running backs eked out 25 yards – 30 yards total for the game. 

In the first half, Lions senior quarterback Devin Smith completed 8-of-15 passes for 128 yards, four touchdowns and one interception by Eagles’ linebacker Bruce Harris, the only highlight of the evening for Lake City. 

Lions’ running back LaVance Mitchell added to the offensive triumph running for 96 yards on five carries and one touchdown in the first half alone.  Foley ended up with 174 yards on the ground for the game. 

Smith spread the ball to four receivers on his touchdown passes: a 14-yard spider-like catch by Julio Jones deep in the corner of the endzone, followed by a 36-yard bomb to Jones over the middle in double coverage, a 17-yard lob to Mike Washington, who sped by his double coverage on an effective fly-route for the score, and 20-yard strike to wide-out Zach McDuffie.  

Jones caught 3 receptions for 59-yards in the first half, and sat out the rest of the game. 

Smith would be replaced in the second half by Marcus Washington, who went 3-of-4 for 63 yards with one touchdown, a 9-yard bullet to Lugene Gibbs, bringing the Lions to an insurmountable 49 point shutout in the final seconds of the third quarter. 

Destin Heath would score the final touchdown mid-way through the fourth on a 4-yard run, taking the Lions to victory - 56-0.