MERRY HILL – The kids are alright.

Most folks wouldn’t see a lot of positives in a 56-6 loss, but that wasn’t the way Lawrence Academy football coach Beau Drake summed it up.

True, his Warriors took it on the chin from two-time defending North Carolinda Independent School Athletic Association 8-Man Football state champion, Word of God Christian Academy of Raleigh, but not without superlatives.

“I’m not going to whine and complain,” said the second-year Warriors field boss. “You’ve got to suit up every Friday night and take on who you take on, but we feel pretty good about our chances against some of the other teams in the league.”

Indeed, the combined 2011 record of the Raleigh “Group of Doom” that included Friday’s game with the Holy Rams and Lawrence’s next two opponents, St. David’s in Raleigh and Cary Christian is 20-12.

“I believe there are some teams we’ll face in the league (the Coastal Carolina Conference) that we’ll match up pretty well with,” he added.

His single-wing backfield did pretty well against a team that hadn’t lost a football game since 2009.  Fullback Logan Mizel ran for a bruising 32 yards on seven carries to lead all Warrior runners.

Ryan Lilley was also a bright spot with 118 return yards on kickoffs and punts including breaking a long one for 30 yards. Trey Styons also got into the stats with a third quarter interception.

So there’s plenty there to feel good about.

Lawrence had its first drive of the game stopped when quarterback Jesse White was intercepted deep in his own territory.  Word of God capitalized by going 89 yards in three plays for their first score of the night on a Casty St. Louis 21-yard run.

After the Warriors’ second drive was stopped on downs the Holy Rams wasted little time lighting up the scoreboard a second time with an eight-play drive that resulted in their second touchdown and a 12-0 lead.

St. Louis scored for Word of God again and the two-point conversion made it 20-0 after the first 12 minutes.

Things didn’t fare much better for the Warriors in the second frame as the Holy Rams scored four more times, their first score of the quarter coming after White was intercepted for the second time of the night.

However, most of their scores came on misdirection plays as Zach Eubanks and Mizel were doing a good job of clogging the middle and denying the Holy Rams extra-point conversions.

Word of God led 48-0 at halftime.

Lawrence would get on the board in the second half, but it came at a price.  In his only carry of the game, Dallas Belch picked up five yards on the drive, but suffered a slight shoulder injury.

The scoring drive was set up by Styons’ interception of St. Louis near midfield.  Belch’s run came on the second play of the drive and it seemed to fire up his Warrior teammates.

Lawrence finished the drive with White going in on a quarterback keeper from one yard out to prevent the shutout.

“We got out of here injury-free despite the sloppy field and sometimes sloppy play so that’s a blessing,” said Word of God coach Kevin Washington.  It was the Holy Rams’ 25th win in a row.

“When we start playing some of these other teams we’ll be okay,” said Drake.  “St. David’s next week has good numbers, but so do we, so we’ll be very confident.”