COLUMBUS — Soggy conditions led to sloppy play in Columbus Friday night as Heritage Academy and Hartfield Academy faced off in their first game of the season.
Fans, players and coaches dealt with elements aplenty, from a bog-like field due to last week’s storms to humidity reaching nearly 90 percent during the game.
It made for a tropical climate at C.L. Mitchell Field, one that favored the Hawks as the Patriots weren’t able to defend home turf, getting shut out, 29-0 at home.
“There are no moral victories, but I told the guys in the postgame huddle that I liked the way we played,” Heritage Academy head coach Tobias Smith said. “I liked the way we fought. We just gotta keep getting better.”
In a matchup of Midsouth Association of Independent Schools 6A and 5A teams, Hartfield (1-0) had the size advantage on Heritage (0-1) from the jump.
It started on offense with Hawks running back Reed Jesiolowski, a 6-3, 205 pound monster in the backfield who torched the Pats defense all night.
Jesiolowski ran for three touchdowns, including a 61-yard burst early in the fourth quarter that put Hartfield up 29-0. He was a problem for Heritage all night, rattling off 10-yard runs with ease over the course of the game.
“That’s a really good football team on the other sideline, but we have a really good football team too,” Smith said.
Heritage came into the 2023 season with holes to patch, most notably in the backfield at quarterback and running back.
This young Patriots roster showed glimpses of success throughout the game, but looked overwhelmed against Hartfield.
Friday was also the debut of junior starting quarterback Thompson Regimbal, who battled the entire night, throwing a few interceptions, but doing what he could to keep Heritage in the game.
“It felt great,” Regimbal said. “We were all playing as a team, but we had our ups and downs though. It was the first game, getting our first game jitters out, but we’ll fix that up…I think I gotta have more faith in my guys. Tonight, I hesitated a little bit, but we’re growing. We all grew tonight.”
Heritage stays home next week as Winston Academy comes to Columbus, and the message expected to echo throughout the team in practice is continued improvement and a focus toward Winston.
“I think we’re going to be really good,” Regimbal said. “It starts in practice though. We all gotta get healthy. We all gotta recover. It all starts tomorrow.”
Hartfield Academy 29, Heritage Academy 0
Hartfield Academy (1-0) 7 2 14 6 — 29
Heritage Academy (0-1) 0 0 0 0 — 0
First quarter
HART — Reed Jesiolowski 4 run (Jackson Jenkins kick), clock 2:33
Second quarter
HART — Safety, clock 8:57
Third quarter
HART — Hayden McMinn 26 pass from Cayman Tapper (Jenkins kick), clock 9:57
HART — Jesiolowski 15 run (Jenkins kick), clock 5:03
Fourth quarter
HART — Jesiolowski 61 run (kick failed), clock 8:31
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