With his team on the doorstep of the Division IV state championship game, Southern Lab’s Shane Forman helped knock the door down with his best performance of the season.
Forman, the team’s middle linebacker, led another strong defensive effort in the playoffs, this time limiting St. Frederick to seven first downs and 137 total yards in the Kittens’ 33-0 victory in the state semifinals at A.W. Mumford Stadium.
“He played his best game of the year,” Southern Lab football coach Darrell Asberry said. “The defense was really set up for the linebackers to make a bunch of plays last week. ‘I was very pleased with his performance. He’s been solid all year.”
The 6-foot, 195-pound Asberry was at the heart of Southern Lab’s dominating defensive performance with a season-high 21 tackles, a tackle for loss and fumble recovery.
For his efforts Forman was selected the Tiger Rag Magazine/Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Health Shining Star of the Week.
“We had to be led by the linebacking corps and he was one of those guys to do what we had talked about all week,” Asberry said. “That was get to the football and stop them before they got started.”
Asberry thought back to the time when Forman first entered the program and the decision to have him play either nickel back or linebacker.
The choice to have Forman play linebacker during his entire career has been a beneficial one because he’s been equally strong against the run and shown the ability to drop back into coverage.
“It’s really worked out,” Asberry said. “He’s done a great job for us. He’s been making plays ever since.”
With Southern Lab already in control up 19-0, Forman recovered a fumble in St. Frederick territory that led to Angelo Izzard’s 1-yard TD run for a 27-0 lead with 33 seconds to go in the third quarter.
“That took a lot of the air out of them,” Asberry said. “After that, it was lights out football for us.”
Thank you for this award I’m extremely blessed.