FOLEY, Alabama — On a historic night at Ivan Jones Stadium in Foley it was the Lions who rolled past archrival Robertsdale in a non-regional matchup with a 41-14 victory Friday night on Lester Smith Field in Foley.

On a night when the Lions retired legendary quarterback Ken “Snake” Stabler’s jersey and the school received a plaque from Ford’s Hometown Hall of Fame Program, it was the Bears who would strike first behind left-handed quarterback Nate Krebs, who would finish the night with 22 of 33 passes for 197 yards.

After stuffing the Lions for negative yardage on their opening drive, the Bears took the ball 62 yards in nine plays, including 4 of 4 passing by Krebs and a pair of rushes by Deandre Prim, capped by a six-yard pass from Krebs to Shelton Deen with Mark Alvarez’s extra point giving Robertsdale a 7-0 lead with 6:17 to go in the opening period.

But the lead would be short-lived as the Lions scored about a minute and a half later marching 67 yards in six plays.

After a 54-yard touchdown run on the second play from scrimmage was negated by a penalty, the Lions bounced back and went 52 yards in four plays, aided by a 15-yard Bear penalty. Running back Tyron Cosby capped the drive from three yards out and Dalton Taylor’s kick knotted the score at 7-7 with 4:44 in the opening quarter.

Foley would open up a 21-7 lead at halftime with touchdown runs of seven yards by quarterback Chris Armstrong and a 37-yard run by Cosby before the Bears drove 79 yards in 11 plays, capped by a 12-yard run by Blake Nichols to cut the lead back to within a touchdown at 21-14.

But a pair of Bear miscues on punts would put the game out of reach, first when a Lion punt went through the hands of the Robertsdale receiver, which was recovered by Foley’s Jerome Hawkins at the Lion 17.

Armstrong notched his second (official) touchdown run of the night on a 22-yard run with the extra point giving Foley a 28-14 lead at the 3:44 mark of the third quarter.

Foley got the ball back three plays later, this time on a fumbled punt attempt. RHS punter Noah Cincotta was tackled at the 11-yard line by Joshua Santa Cruz and Armstrong scored his third TD of the game with the point-after putting the Lions up 35-14 with 45 seconds to go in the game.

A scoreless fourth quarter was broken with no time remaining on the game clock when Dalton Gideons raced 89 yards for a final Lion score. Foley lined up for a 2-point conversion, but took a knee to finish the game with a 41-14 Lion victory.

“I think we played really well for our first game,” said second-year Lion Head Coach Tad Niblett following the contest. “There are a lot of things we need to correct, but I am proud of their effort.”

Niblett said he thought the players handled the distractions of the Stabler ceremony well.

“They knew there was going to be a lot going on and they were able to stay focused on the task at hand,” he said. “There are a bunch of kids on this team who were playing in their first varsity game and I think they handled it really well.”

Cosby finished the game with 100 yards on 11 carries, while Armstrong had 80 yards on 16 carries to go with his three touchdowns. Gideons 89-yarder at the end of the game put his total at 96 on seven carries for the Lions.

Prim added 57 yards on 23 carries and Krebs had 47 yards on eight carries to go with his 197 passing yards to lead the Bears.

Foley remains at home this week, taking its 1-0 record into 7A Region 1 play against archrival Fairhope in a renewal of the Blue-Gold Classic, while Robertsdale (0-1) opens up 6A Region 1 play against the Blount Leopards at J.D. Sellars Stadium in Robertsdale.