Lightning Football News...

Story by Ray Boetger

The largest home crowd to ever attend a Joshua Springs Football game not only saw a great defensive battle between the Lightning and Victor Valley Christian but were also given a Pre-game and half-time show that would would make ESPN highlights, if they knew about it.

The pre-game show started with 2 skydivers landing into Lightning stadium at mid-field. One was carrying the Lightning Football flag and the other was streaming purple smoke. All of this while the Pep-Band played "Eye of the Tiger".

Next, was the introduction of the Homecoming court and this year's King and Queen. This year's court consisted of freshman Prince Ryan Anderson and Princess Laura Adair; sophomore Prince Jesse Marshall and Princess Katrina Abel and junior Prince Kyle Poe and Princess Christine Pourtemour. The Senior court consisted of three senior Princes, Sir Andrew Purcell, Dustin Pourtemour and Cory Jenson. The Princesses were Amber Carter, Trisha Husband and Christy Alexandra Ortiz. This year's King was Dustin Pourtemour and the Queen was Christy Alexandra Ortiz.

It was now time for the run-in tunnel to be formed which was the biggest ever. The Lightning roared through the tunnel as the Pep-band played the Lightning fight song. It was time to rumble!

Now, let's get to the game. On the first Lightning drive there was a fumble that gave possession to the Royals. The Lightning defense did well, but the Royals found a weak spot, and ran through it. The Royals scored the touchdown, but failed at the 2 point conversion. The scored was 6-0 Royals. As the half wore down the Lightning were on the march but fumbled on their goal line. The Royals got the ball back, but the Lightning defense rose to the occasion and forced the Royals to punt. In the next series, the crowd went wild when Tim Krapivkin threw a beautiful 36-yd pass to Kevin Adair for a TD strike. Adair also kicked the Point after to put the Lightning on top 7-6. The Royals got the ball back, but decided to take a knee to end the half.

The half-time show featured 83 mini-cheerleaders as well as the Jr. High and Varsity cheerleaders. The show was finished off with the pep-band doing a Latin-styled show featured drum solos by Josh Wagner and Thomas Noble. They rocked!

As the half started up again, all 2,000 fans stood for the kick off. Now the Lightning had the ball. Both teams were going back and forth between possessions. Finally, on a QB sneak, Krapivkin scored a touchdown. Adair failed to make the extra point. The Lightning were now ahead 13-6. As the clock was winding down, Victor Valley Christian scored with just 2:43 on the clock. They chose to try to win the game instead of tying it up by going for 2 points. The Royal's QB rolled back and threw what looked like a perfect strike only to have Tony Garrido tip it away and off the fingers of the Royal receiver. The Lightning crowd went wild. It was now 13-12 Lightning. The Lightning just had to hold on for the Last 2 minutes to win the game, which they did.

The Royal's QB had two additional chances to score but was intercepted both times by Kevin Adair who is now tied with Nathan Rynning for the most interceptions in a season which is 12. Rynning set the record last year in 13 games. Adair has tied it in just 7 games. I think Adair has a pretty good chance of taking that record from Rynning this year.

Next Friday Night (Halloween), the Lightning take on CSOD for the League championship at Bermuda Dunes. This will be the hardest game of the year for the Lightning and we need everyone to come out to the game.