Force, Lions Renew Rivalry Friday Night
April 29, 2010 - Southern Indoor Football League (SIFL)
Greenville Force News Release
GREENVILLE, SC (April 29, 2010) - After devouring the Lafayette Wildcatters last weekend, the Columbus Lions (3-1) of the Southern Indoor Football League travel to take on the Greenville Force (2-2) with Friday night being the first of three 2010 regular season matchups.
Back on March 8th, these two clubs met for an exhibition game with the Lions easily handling the Force winning 63-6. Both Greenville and Columbus have met twice before in the regular season as both were members of the AIFA in 2009. In those two meetings, the rivals managed to score a combined 188 points with the last game coming down to the wire with Columbus edging out Greenville 52-49. Come Friday night, the Force will be looking for their first victory in this series while the Lions will look to become the first SIFL road team to come away with a victory.
Greenville is looking to rebound after losing two straight including last week's 78-13 domination by the hands of the Albany Panthers. Against the Panthers, the Force was missing top quarterback Andrew Webb as Greenville issued four interceptions and four sacks on their way to collecting just 129 passing yards. Despite missing Webb, Force wide receiver Isaac West continued to haul in passes at a record pace bringing down 4 more receptions for 111 yards and two touchdowns. West currently resides as the SIFL's leader in both receptions (28) and touchdowns (12).
Columbus comes into Greenville riding a two game winning streak of including last weekend's defensive devouring of the Lafayette Wildcatters. In their 54-26 victory, Columbus collected four interceptions and four sacks holding Wildcatters quarterback Bo Bartik to a less than half completion percentage (41%). Defensive lineman Franklin Lloyd continued terrorizing opposing quarterbacks after adding another sack to his league leading 4.5. After leading Columbus to two consecutive turnover free games, quarterback Chris McCoy will get the start but Todd Spitzer is expected to see some action returning from his three-week absence due to injury.
"Greenville is not going to be that same team we played almost two months ago," says Columbus Lions Head Coach Jason Gibson. "There are especially tough at home and we expect to be in a dog fight."
Friday is the beginning of a grueling month of May for the Lions with their next three games all being on the road. This week's game is equally important for Greenville as their next two games also come via the road with trips to Lafayette and Albany up next.
"Friday will be a true test to see how far we have come along in the past two months," says Greenville Head Coach Tony Wells. "Jason will have his guys prepared and we will just have to do a better job of containing the big play."
The Columbus Lions travel to take on the Greenville Force this Friday night at 7:30 PM at the Bi-Lo Center. For more ticket information contact the Force front office at 864-250-4935 or by logging on to www.gvilleforce.com.
For all this week's Southern Indoor Football League action, log on to www.southernifl.com and follow the live twitter feed as well as the newly implemented live scoreboard feature.
• Discuss this story on the Southern Indoor Football League message board...
Southern Indoor Football League Stories from April 29, 2010
- Force, Lions Renew Rivalry Friday Night - Greenville Force
The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.
