CONTRIBUTED BY SOUTHERN CHRISTIAN PATRIOTS
LEE COUNTY —
The Southern Christian Patriots hosted the Trinity Christian Homeschool Eagles on Friday at Moore Stadium in Opelika. The boys from Pelham had lost their season opener to Success Unlimited coming into the game with the Patriots on Friday. Likewise the Patriots had lost their opener with conference opponent Lighthouse Warriors the week prior. So both teams came into the game with something to prove.
“We had a couple of great high school players in their own right come in and talk to the team on Thursday night, them,” said Patriots head coach Jason Scott. “The idea was to light a fire under the guys that were still not really showing up with the intensity I really need out of them. Judson and Dustin did a great job of challenging the guys. I was real happy with the results.”
And the results were pretty good, with the Patriots handily defeating the Eagles 74 to 6 with a running clock in the 4th quarter.
“We put every sub we had in the game in the second half,” Sott said. “But our guys just kept scoring and the guys on defense kept their boot on the neck of Trinity and would not let them up. I feel like when we put 26 on the board in the first half, most of the wind had already went out of their sails.”
However, the Eagles did score their only touchdown right before half time after 45 yards in penalties for the Patriots and a fumble recovery by the Eagles deep in Patriot territory set them in really good position to wipe out that goose egg before the buzzer.
Leading the Patriots was freshman halfback Elijah Bailey with 11 carries for 123 yards before switching to QB at half time. At quarterback he throws eight for eight passes for 58 yards and three scores. His favorite target being fullback Jagger Scott, two catches for 54 yards, and Aiden Hahn, two catches for 24 yards. Josiah Frick, senior QB, also had a phenomenal game running seven times for 240 yards in one half of play. Frick also led the Pats with 15 tackles, followed by Jagger with 12 and Jedd Scott with 10, all three young men only seeing one half of play on Friday night. Bailey added 11 tackles and Robbie Phinney had 10. Braiden Jerkins also added two sacks for the defense.
Southern Christian will face its ACSC conference rival, the East Central Patriots on Friday at Moore Stadium in Opelika. SCA will need to beat the boys from Birmingham to have a chance on its first conference playoff opportunity. Last year, the game was won in the final moments of the fourth quarter by East Central after being behind the entire game by 2 scores.
East Central comes in to Friday with two wins and one loss. This will be a significant game for both teams with a lot riding on the result. Game time is 7 p.m. on Friday at Moore Stadium located on 7th Avenue in the historic district of Opelika.