Exhibition games in the Hamilton Minor Football Association have wrapped up for the Ancaster Lions teams.

All three teams had good showings against their rivals from the West Mountain, the Riders. The three Lions games were played at Mohawk Sports Park and were the first game-type situations for the teams this year.

The Tyke Lions, playing on Aug. 24, lost to the Tyke Riders but put up a fight against the defending champs.

"I thought we played fairly well," said John O'Brien, head coach. "We wanted to come out to see what we needed to work on and I think we were able to get that from the game."

The Tyke Lions are now looking ahead to opening day, when they play the Tyke Stamps.

The Atom Lions put forth a solid effort Aug. 25, winning a hard-fought game against the Riders 29-12.

The Lions opened the scoring in the first quarter with a touchdown run by Noah Crosswell and never looked back. Noah finished the game with three touchdowns on the ground and Xavier Martinez added another through the air on a pass from Quarterback Josh Aspin.

Nicholas Feria was two for three on convert attempts with Josh Aspin running another. The defence also put forth a solid effort holding the Roughriders to only two scores and forcing two turnovers, a fumble recovery by Mark Butts in the first quarter and an interception by Ryan Marcon to seal the win in the 4th quarter.

"I'm proud of my guys," said head coach Damien Condon. "It's a long season and it was only exhibition, but it was still good to see the guys come out here and execute against a very tough team."

The Peewee Lions lost a close one against the Riders 20-13. The Peewee Lions played tough against a team that went 8-0 on the regular season last year and lost in the Peewee championship. Darren Ivey had both touchdowns for the Lions, while Johnny Mater added a run in the end zone for the point after touchdown.

Head coach Mike Rand said he was pleased overall with his team's performance.

"I told the guys before the game and after, win or lose, I just want to see us execute in the three phases of the game and I think we did that for the most part," Rand said.

The Peewee Lions' defence held the Riders to only two scores, with their other touchdown coming off a kick return.

"Certainly we had some broken coverage on special teams, but it's nothing that we can't fix," coach Rand added.

The Tyke, Atom and Peewee Lions take the field next on Sunday, Sept. 7 for their season openers against the Stampeders. Kickoffs are set for 10:30 a.m for Tyke, 1:30 p.m for Atom and 6 p.m. for the Peewees. All games will be played at Ivor Wynne Stadium.