Jared CohenRed Mountain through a month of the season requires your attention if you are in 6A. There is so much more to this team than their 2-2 record.
The Mountain Lions began their season against Chandler where they played them tough for the first half before the big play ability of the Wolves took over in the second half. Red Mountain followed that game up with a date with Hamilton where they lost by just one and missed extra points by the Lions could have flipped the script. Last week, Basha saw how tough this team could be as they were blown out by the score of 56-21.
Now Red Mountain is back to .500 with an impressive win over Boulder Creek where their defense was spectacular and picked up their offense which started slow but made big plays in the second half to create separation.
A huge part of the offensive success this season has been and will continue to be the play making ability of junior Lance Lawson who this season, is going to be able to play his natural position on the football field.
Last year as a sophomore, the 5-8 Lawson was the team’s duel-threat quarterback and did a very nice job considering it isn’t the position he anticipated playing at the varsity level. Going into this season, quarterback looked to be his spot again until Austin Duffy transferred in from Desert Ridge and is now the team’s starting quarterback. This moves Lawson to running back or in the slot where he can get the ball in his hands in space and make some big time plays.
There is an interesting detail about Lawson which is an angle I have not thought about or reported on when it comes to football players at this level. Many of these guys on the field get their start playing flag football before putting the pads on at the Pop Warner or high school levels. Lawson played flag football four four years before tackle and contributes his playmaking ability to it. When playing flag, you have to do so much more with your feet. There is no stiff arming or lowering your shoulder to gain more yards. Lawson has fantastic feet and center of gravity to where he is able to make big plays by making people miss and contributes his learning the game playing flag football first to that.
Ultimately, Lawson sees himself being most successful lining up in the slot on offense. For now, he is thriving wherever the team needs him which is all over the place including running back, quarterback, line backer and more in addition to playing receiver.
