PHEBA — Cody Bolton and Anthony Sharp are prepared for a full load this season.
With only 14 players dressed out for its season opener against Hebron Christian School on Friday night, the Victory Christian Academy football team’s game plan was simple: Give the football to Bolton and Sharp and let them make things happen.
Bolton and Sharp made sure an addendum will be on future agendas: Make plays on defense.
Not only did Bolton and Sharp provide a one-two punch in the ground game, but they teamed to make game-changing and game-saving plays on defense to lead Victory Christian to a 26-14 victory in the season opener for both teams.
“I think they did a real good job,” Victory Christian coach Chris Hamm said. “The thing we really want to work on is the blocking, one blocking for another. When it got late there, we really haven’t worked a fullback into the scheme this year. I would have like to have had an I-formation with a big back and just pounded it, but they did a good job leading for one another. I felt they complemented each other. In the first half, I felt like they were trying to make too many cuts, too many stop-and-gos. At halftime, we talked about one cutting and getting north and south. I felt they both did a real good job of doing that in the second half.”
Bolton, a junior, led the way with 19 carries for 167 yards and two touchdowns. His classmate Sharp added 16 carries for 108 yards and two more touchdowns. Their running helped the Eagles amass 251 rushing yards and avenge a 48-20 loss to Hebron Christian last season in Columbus.
While Hebron Christian suffered key graduation losses from 2012, the progression Victory Christian has made since that loss and the end of last season, when it lost in the Christian Football Association playoffs, is directly attributed to desire, preparation, and perseverance.
“Our motto going into the game was to win each play, to win the next play,” said Bolton, who scored on runs of 39 and 31 yards. “We lived by that motto tonight and just finished off the game.”
Trailing 14-12, Victory Christian turned the tide with a big defensive stop. Hebron Christian elected to go for it on fourth-and-1 from its 36-yard line. The Clay County Eagles gave the ball to speedy senior Justin Gordon, who was nursing an ankle injury. Sharp crashed in from left defensive end and tripped Gordon up in the backfield. Hunter Austin and a host of Eagles cleaned up the initial hit to give Victory Christian the ball.
Two plays later, Victory Christian had the lead. Bolton broke off an 18-yard run only to be matched by an 18-yard run by Sharp on a trap play that made it 18-14 with 2 minutes, 41 seconds to go in the third quarter.
“I do whatever my team needs me to do to help them win,” Sharp said. “It was a little difficult at first. I have played cornerback my whole life on defense, but we’re short on numbers this year and we need someone to step up and play it.”
The trap played proved to be Victory Christian’s best play. Solid blocking up front and a wider field — 53 1/3 yards as opposed to the 40-yard field Victory Christian is used to playing on in eight-man football — made the trap even tougher to stop because Bolton and Sharp used their speed to get to the edges.
“We like to run that trap, mostly as a counter to sweeps and things,” Hamm said. “I was real pleased. We missed that block a time or two, but, all in all, the line did a good job and the backs did a good job.”
Victory Christian needed one more stand to preserve the victory. Bolton didn’t mean to add more drama to the proceedings, but he did when he inadvertently took a knee collecting the snap on a punt and was whistled down at the Victory Christian 25. But Hebron Christian couldn’t move the ball. In fact, Victory Christian pushed them back and used a sack by Sharp on fourth-and-16 to take control.
Following the play, one of Victory Christian’s coaches yelled to Sharp from the sidelines, “That’s why you’re playing defensive end.”
But Sharp didn’t have any time to savor the stop because he took a handoff and gained 2 yards on the first play of the next series. Bolton and Sharp alternated carries before Bolton broke around left end on another trap play, tip-toed the sideline, and dove to break the plane for a 31-yard scamper that sealed the deal.
Hamm stressed Thursday the players needed to stay focused on the next play — no matter how good or bad the previous one was. Bolton showed he listened to Hamm by forgetting his mistake on the punt attempt by helping the defense make a pivotal stop and then playing a key role in the final scoring drive.
“I was a little devastated,” Bolton said. “I thought I might have cost (the game) for my team, but they picked me up and they helped me and we fought through it and we ended up stopping them. I thank my team for that.”
Bolton admitted the offense was a little slow to hit its stride Friday night, but he felt things jelled once he and Sharp got into their rhythm. It wasn’t surprising Bolton and Sharp found their footing because Sharp said they have run the split backfield in junior varsity in the seventh, eighth, and ninth grade. He said he and Bolton have great chemistry and worked well with sophomore quarterback Reed Fulgham and the offensive line to keep the chains moving.
“We have been training all summer,” Sharp said. “Our main focus has been stamina, endurance, and not giving up.”
Said Bolton, “We have always had this idea. We’re best friends, so we work well together in the backfield. We have been trying to do this for a while.”
Hamm praised his players for overcoming a strong start by Hebron Christian in which the Clay County Eagles used the power running of Trey Chism and the speed of Gordon to take control.
“They performed exactly like I thought they would because that has been the spirit of this team all summer,” Hamm said. “I told them hard work got us here and that is what is going to keep us going.
“The way the game went, to get behind early and to stay the course and finish like we did … I think our guys did a great job and it is only going to give us confidence. They know what got them here. They have worked all summer, and if they will continue to work I think we can expect. That is what we talked about, preparing, and when you prepare you can expect good things. That is what we’re looking for.”
A year ago, Hebron Christian gained 373 yards in first half en route to a 36-8 halftime lead. They finished with 358 yards rushing, but they lost their top three rushers from that game — Taylor Coggins, Will-Corben Rogers, and Austin Foster — to graduation. Hebron Christian, which dressed out 22 players, lost sophomore Landon Hill to an apparent leg injury. Hill had to taken off the field on a stretcher and then left the field in an ambulance. Coach David Foster said the loss of Hill and nagging injuries to Gordon and Chism (knee) didn’t hurt as much as missed tackles.
“That is what I stress to my defense, not missing tackles,” Foster said. “We got outplayed a lot of the time. They wanted it more than we did, I thought. I have some things I need to work on, too. It is not all my players’ fault. It is my fault, too. We’re going to go back to the drawing board Monday and start working again and see if we can polish some of that stuff up.”
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 52 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.