It’s the end of August here in the town of Fillmore, and you know what that means. It means the return of Flashes football. The Flashes traveled to Moorpark College to take on the Grace Brethren Lancers for the first game of the 2014 season.

The Lancers won the coin toss and chose to defer to the second half. The Flashes offence started at the Lancers 25 yard line. Fillmore handed the ball off to Justin Coert for their first 1st down of the season. The Flashes offence stalled after that, and they were forced to punt the ball away. The Lancers called for a fair catch on the Flashes 19 yard line with 10 minutes left in the 1st quarter. The Lancers scored on a 28 yard touchdown pass, which was set up by a 17 yard rush on the previous play. The 2 point conversion was no good, so with 6:32 left in the first quarter the Lancers lead 6-0. The Lancers kicked the ball off to Hayden Wright, and he made them pay with a 37 yard return. The Flashes offense still couldn’t get anything going as they were forced to punt with 4:30 left in the 1st quarter. Grace Brethren received the ball at the 25 yard line. The Fillmore defense stepped up and forced the Lancers to punt with 2:18 left in the 1st quarter. On 3rd down Fillmore completed a 12 yard pass down to the Lancers 37 yard line.

Fillmore still trailed 6-0 going in to the 2nd quarter. The Lancers defense forced a 3 and out as Fillmore was forced to punt again. The Lancers called for a fair catch at the 21 yard line. On 1st down the Lancers quarterback rushed the ball 11 yards for a 1st down. The Flashes defense stepped up, and on the next play forced a fumble, and they recovered at their own 42 yard line. Fillmore’s offence still couldn’t get anything going and they were forced to punt the ball away with 9:10 left in the 2nd quarter. Grace Brethren called for a fair catch at their own 10 yard line. On 2nd down and 6 the Lancers passed the ball 15 yards for a first down at the 29 yard line. The Flashes defense stepped up again as they forced the Lancers to punt. The ball went into the end zone for a touchback, and the ball was brought out to the 20. However the offense couldn’t do much as they were forced to punt again. The Lancers drove the ball all the way into the red zone before their pass was intercepted at the 10 yard line by Damien Gonzalez. Fillmore couldn’t put up points and they went into the locker room at halftime down 6-0.

Grace Brethren received the ball to start the second half, and they returned the ball down to the 42 yard line of the Flashes. Grace Brethren had the ball at the 28 yard line and ran the ball 21 yards down to the 7 yard line with 8:45 left in the 3rd quarter. Seconds later a 7 yard run gave the lancers a 13-0 lead. Fillmore received the ball, but they still couldn’t figure out that Lancer defense and they punted it down to the 46 yard line. The Lancers took over and they scored on a 21 yard touchdown run to put them up 19-0. They decided to go for the 2 point conversion and they got it, and they lead ballooned up to 21-0. Fillmore received the ball and took it down to the 25 yard line. A personal foul, and an ejection by Grace Brethren pushed the ball all the way up to the 45 yard line. Fillmore punted the ball again down to the 24 yard line. Grace Brethren couldn’t do anything on offence either as Fillmore forced them to punt with 2 minutes left in the 3rd quarter. Fillmore went into the final quarter down 21-0

Fillmore was stopped on 3rd down on their next drive, but they elected to go for it on 4th down. Michael Luna caught the 4th down pass and gained 20 yards. Later on the Flashes went for it on 4th down again, but the Lancer defense held strong and forced a turn over on downs. Grace Brethren started with the ball on their own 10 yard line. They took the ball all the way down to the Flashed 30 yard line, and with 4 minutes left in the game they rushed the ball 17 yards down to the 13 yard line. The Lancers get the ball down to the 3 yard line where they punched it in one more time to push the lead to 27-0 with 3:21 left in the game. Fillmore received the ball with just over 2 minutes left. The Lancers intercept a 4th down pass with 30 seconds left and Grace Brethren won the game 27-0.