STEENS — Led by the speedy backfield of quarterback Matthew Benge and running back Imonn Hill, the Rams of Columbus Christian Academy put on an offensive clinic, torching visiting North Sunflower Academy 62-6 in Friday’s season opener.
Benge captained CCA’s triple option offense to perfection, lobbing a 35-yard touchdown pass to David Easterling for the game’s first score and adding two more scoring runs of 11 yards and long one from Raider territory for the Rams’ final score. Hill broke free for scoring runs of 40 and 46 yards, and Colby Hand rumbled into the end zone for a 21-yard carry and also returned an interception for a touchdown. Benge carried in six 2-point conversions, and Easterling, who snagged an interception on defense, also punched in a run for two points.
CCA (1-0) did most of its damage in the first quarter and took a 46-0 lead to the second frame and led 54-0 at halftime. With the clock running in the third quarter, head coach Marcus Davidson brought in some back ups to get them some playing time and immediately struggled to move the ball on the ground. Facing a long third-down conversion in Raider territory, he designed up a running play for Benge, who scrambled into the end zone for the Rams’ final score with 9:58 left in the game.
Davidson said his team didn’t have to dig too deep in the playbook to capture the win and executed the basics solidly to start the year.
“We tried to keep the (offense) basic and everything. I mean we’ve got some other stuff that we’re trying to work on to execute down the road and hopefully for a playoff run, but what we did tonight I thought we came out and executed well,” he said. “I thought we played fast and got a jump on them early. I know they got the onside kick early and everything, but we winded up getting back and having good field position after the punt return. I thought we did what we needed to early to put ourselves in good situations to get out and try and get a running clock.
“We still have some things to clean up and some other things that I’d like to do. Put a few little twists on things, but my fullback, my quarterback and my wing all ran it tonight pretty good from what I could tell without looking at film so far.”
Defensively, the Rams locked the Raiders out of scoring position for the vast majority of the contest by forcing four punts, two interceptions and three turnovers on downs. North Sunflower didn’t cross midfield until its final drive of the game: a nine-play drive that ended with the Raiders punching in a run on fourth down from 1-yard out against mostly CCA backups.
“We played well defensively – and that was our job, to try and get and limit as many first downs as possible to keep a short field to work with for us defensively.” he said. “But the thing about it is, I didn’t want to go out and embarrass a team, so we went and worked on all week getting some second-string guys ready to go in, but they’re still young and growing too. I like to keep a zero on the scoreboard any time I can, but we held them out until the last two minutes of the game. But, it’s a learning process and those guys have to get some experience too, and plus it keeps our other guys healthy to finish out the season hopefully.”
CCA is back in action on Aug. 29 at Benton Academy, which lost its opener 36-14 to Newton County Academy on Friday.
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