The eighth grade Lions of Corpus Christi played their first game of the season as they hosted Our Lady of Peace (OLP) on Saturday, Nov. 17, at Corpus Christi.

In front of their fans, the Lions opened their season. With a new addition, as well as the returnees and a returnee after missing a year, the boys moved up to the very competitive "B" division. This is going to be a very difficult year as the team will be facing extremely tough competition each and every game.

The Lions started the game out slowly as OLP took the lead during the first quarter, but Corpus Christi's boys were not going to be denied, as they got into the flow of the game in the second quarter, taking a 4-point halftime lead. The Lions came out roaring in the third quarter as they built up their lead and never really looked back. Even though in the waning minutes, OLP did close the gap, the Lions were victorious 41-38.

The Lions were led by Christian Lird (11 points), Matt Rudolph (8 points), and Tyler Kapela (5 points) and Nick Goncalves (3 points, 15 rebounds). The point was controlled by Dylan DeKanchuk (4 points) and he hit a buzzer beater as the buzzer sounded at the end of the first half. The wings play was key as Eddie Novak (4 points) and Kevin Lang (4 points) contributed. The low post defense was supplied by the Justin Pilla and Pascal Poropat.

The team was cheered on by the Corpus Christi cheerleaders, who were extremely spirited and made the home court advantage a much bigger advantage all game long. It was an awesome display of school/parish and community spirit. The boys were extremely grateful for the support.

The boy's next game is another home game on Dec. 2 at 2:15 p.m. against an extremely talented team from St. Raymond's Parish.