STEENS — The situation was desperate for the Columbus Christian Academy football team, trailing by two and facing fourth-and-10 near midfield with five minutes left in the game against Christian Collegiate Academy.
Drake Shaw was up to the challenge, and the result was a wild 34-30 victory for the Rams Friday night in the opening game for both schools..
The junior quarterback was forced out of the pocket and went scrambling. He raced up the field and toward the left sideline, reaching the Bulldogs’ 39. Twelve yards, first down Rams.
“Basically, we were just trying to get the ball downfield,” Shaw said. “We were trying to get a first down, and I knew if we didn’t get it on that it might have been it for the game. Our team did a good job of blocking when they saw I was running. We kept going, kept pushing and got past that first down marker.”
Rejuvenated by the new set of downs, Shaw then hit Caleb Farlow for 13 yards and found McCory Humphries on a little swing pass on the right side that Humphries, twisting away from would-be tacklers, turned into a nine-yard gain.
Jonah Harrison took it from there, sweeping left into the end zone with 3:25 to go. The junior said he knew when he took the handoff that he would score on the play.
“No, I didn’t,” he started to say after the game. “Wait, I take that back. Yeah, I did. Caleb did some good blocking, and it just worked out.”
It took just two minutes of game time for the Rams to go from almost down and out to almost ready to celebrate, and that’s the kind of mental toughness that first-year coach Rusty Mason was thrilled to see.
“I’m really proud of the fight in our kids,” first-year Columbus Christian coach Rusty Mason said. “They had some athletes, they had a lot of skill, and we kept fighting. But we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
The Rams were behind before that final drive because of a 100-yard interception return by Sean Fairley as the Rams were looking for a two-score lead. But Columbus Christian’s resilience after that dramatic turn of events summed up the Rams’ night. They gave up big plays; they made big plays. They suffered emotionally crushing blows; they dealt crushing blows. It was that kind of game, taking three hours to play despite the 10-minute quarters.
“We throw the Tebow pass, and we throw it low,” Mason said of the interception in the end zone. “A mental mistake, had him open, throw it low, they pick it, go all the way back, and we’ve got to come back down the field and fight again. A lot of resolve from the kids tonight.”
The wild finish and dramatic victory didn’t hide the mistakes each team made. And Mason won’t have a problem convincing his players of the need to correct them.
“We had a lot of good plays,” Shaw said. “But we had a lot of mistakes that cost us a lot of stuff, and we’ve got to work on that. We have to do a lot better the next game, improve and get a W the next time.”
“So many mental mistakes,” Mason said. “It looked like the first game. It was rough. We missed a lot of assignments, and that‘s on us to coach harder. The mental game we’ve got to get better. Man, the film is going to be messy.”
Mistakes often lead to big plays, and each team had several of them. The Bulldogs scored their first two touchdowns on runs of 25 yards by D.J. Biggs and 53 yards by Trae Bailey and later had a 37-yard pass to Devin Lowe on a blown coverage deep in Rams territory. In between those first two Bulldogs scores, the Rams scored on a 50-yard punt return by Humphries which electrified the home crowd.
“That punt return McCory had was great,” Shaw said. “I was jumping up and down for that.”
A 75-yard touchdown run by Biggs was called back by a penalty, a Shaw pass hit off of Luke Phillips and went right into the hands of Humphries for a 40-yard gain to set up a Beau Kemp touchdown run, and Lahndon Townley burst through a hole and went 46 yards before being tripped up by his ankle.
Big plays went the wrong way, too. A Phillips interception that gave the Rams the ball back one play after they pulled within 16-12 was followed five plays later by a jarring hit that cause a fumble back to the Bulldogs after a completed pass. Farlow drew a pass interference call that helped a drive that ended in a short TD run by Townley, and the teams traded turnovers two plays apart late in the third quarter.
But the biggest of the negative plays went the Rams way in a big way. The Bulldogs had trouble with low snaps throughout the game; their quarterbacks often had to recover the ball before starting a play.
One such low snap — for a second consecutive play — came on a punt attempt. By the time Bulldogs punter Aidan Castillo got possession of the ball, he was smothered by Townley at his own 13. One play later, Shaw found Kent for a 13-yard touchdown pass.
That wasn’t the only big play from Townley, who twice chased down Houston Mack from behind when Mack was threatening to break off a big run. And the defense, which did a good job overall against a team
“I’m really proud of our defense right there at the end,” Mason said. “Townley had a great night. He’s a good football player. He was throwing up at half, maybe a little dehydrated. But what a defensive game he had in the second half.”
The defense at the end Mason referred to was on the Bulldogs’ last drive of the game. The kickoff after Harrison’s touchdown went out of bounds, the second time that happened to the Rams, and Mack soon was bouncing off would-be tacklers on a jet sweep for 22 yards. Biggs found Bailey on fourth-and-3 for 12 yards to the Rams’ 26 with 1:02 left.
But that was it for the Bulldogs. A low snap on first down led to Biggs running for his life, netting two yards. The Rams sacked the elusive Biggs on the next two plays, with Townley in on both of them, to set up fourth-and-33 at midfield, and a final desperation pass fell incomplete over the middle.
The Rams will be back at home Friday against Marvell Academy of Arkansas.
Columbus Christian 34, Christian Collegiate 30
Chr. CA 16 0 8 6 — 30
Col. CA 6 14 8 6 — 34
First quarter
Chr — D.J. Biggs 26 run (Houston Mack run) 5:39
Col — McCory Humphries 50 punt return (run failed) :55
Chr — Trae Bailey 53 run (D.J. Biggs run) :00
Second quarter
Col — Beau Kemp 1 run (pass failed) 7:01
Col — Beau Kemp 13 pass from Shaw (Beau Kemp run) :40
Third quarter
Chr — Devin Lowe 37 pass from D.J. Biggs (D.J. Biggs run) 9:41
Col — Lahndon Townley 2 run (Lahndown Townley run) 4:03
Fourth quarter
Chr — Sean Fairley 100 interception return (pass failed) 5:43
Col — Jonah Harrison 17 run (run failed) 3:25
Banks Academy 12, Pickens Academy 6
CARROLTON, Alabama — Defense was the order of the day Friday night as the Pirates opened their season with a home loss.
Senior Will Noland recovered two fumbles, returning one of them a yard for Pickens’ only score. That touchdown made it 6-6 with five minutes to go in the first half.
Hunter Lowery and Clay Moore also recovered fumbles for the Pirates, while Chandler Box led the team with seven tackles and Drake Lowery registered six.
Offensively, Deveren Wilkins rushed 21 times for 42 yards, while Box finished with 31 yards on 11 carries.
The Pirates on Friday will travel to Harpersville for another nonregion game against Coosa Valley Academy before returning home to open region play Sept. 3 against Sparta Academy.
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