The Victory Christian football team did what it needed to do Friday night, including putting an
exclamation point on homecoming.
With the 68-8 drubbing of North River Christian, the two-time defending champion Eagles put in their reservations for a first-round home game in the Christian Football Association playoffs.
The victory also stretched Victory Christian”s winning streak to 28 games.
“These guys are really playing well,” Victory Christian coach Chris Hamm said. “We”ve got a lot of pride on this team, and I know the seniors really want that third ring.”
The Eagles (6-0) fell behind once against North River Christian. It was, however, only once and early.
Victory Christian opened the game with a 7-yard scoring pass from Marcus Sims to Tyler Jones. Will Pitts kicked the extra point. North River Christian answered with a touchdown and the two-point conversion to take a short-lived 8-7 lead.
The Eagles countered with 61 unanswered points for the victory, starting with a 92-yard scoring toss from Sims to Landon Ellis. Jones put Victory Christian up 21-8 after the first quarter when he went 8 yards for the touchdown.
In the second quarter, Ellis added a 63-yard scoring run. Nick Hairston and Hunter Johnson caught North River Christian in its end zone for a safety.
Ellis on the next two Victory Christian touchdowns before intermission. He caught a 23-yard scoring pass from Sims, then he returned an interception 18 yards for a touchdown.
Ellis repeated his pickoff return for a touchdown, bringing an interception 42 yards for a touchdown. Sims threw another touchdown pass, hitting Jones from 49 yards.
Ben Williams also ran 19 yards for another Victory Christian touchdown. The final points for the Eagle came on a 43-yard run by Ellis.
Sims led the Victory Christian passing attack, connecting on 6 of 13 passes for 251 yards. With the 244 rushing yards, the Eagles piled up 455 total yards on offense.
Ellis rushed for 140 yards and had 115 yards receiving. Williams rushed four times for 44 yards.
On defense, Williams was tops with nine tackles, trailed by Kaleb Holiness with seven tackles and two interceptions, six tackles each from Jay pace and Tyler Jones (who had an interception). Ellis made four tackles and picked off two passes.
Victory Christian wraps up the regular season Friday against Tuscaloosa Christian.
- Pillow Academy 42, Heritage Academy 14: At Columbus, JaQuez Taylor rushed for four touchdowns as the larger Greenwood team took the victory home to Leflore County.
“They were really big up front,” Heritage Academy coach Brad Butler said. “They were a well-disciplined team. They made too many third-down conversions and kept moving the ball.”
Tyler Marchak was the Patriots” offensive leader, carrying four times for 65 yards, Stan Hennessey followed with 51 yards on six carries and Hunter Buxton with 38 yards on five carries. Cade Lott completed 2 of 9 passes for 14 yards.
Pillow Academy scored first on Taylor”s 2-yard run and on a 7-yard run by quarterback Landon Taylor.
Heritage Academy got on the board with Stance Henderson”s 3-yard run and kick.
Taylor scored from 1 yard and Landon Taylor threw to Zack Davis 6 yards to end the first-half scoring.
In the third quarter, Taylor scored from 1 and 15 yards before Heritage got back on the scoreboard. Buxton burst over the goal line from 1 yard and Henderson added the PAT kick.
Heritage Academy (3-6) will go to Greenville on Friday to play Washington School.
n Louisville 31, Caledonia 0: At Caledonia, Wyatt Roberts threw four touchdown passes — three to C.J. Bates — to lead the Wildcats past the Confederates.
“We were outmatched from the start,” Caledonia coach Ricky Kendrick said. “We played a very clean game, though, with only one turnover and two penalties.”
Darius Marchbanks led Caledonia (1-8, 1-2 Class 4A, Region 4) with 64 rushing yards on 16 carries. Onterrio Lowrey had 15 carries for 51 yards. Richard Keene completed 4 of 7 passes for 66 yards.
Louisville (6-3, 3-0) scored twice in the first quarter on touchdown passes of 30 and 21 yards from Roberts to Bates. In the second half, Roberts hits Bates from 19 yards, Chad Love scored from 3 yards, and Roberts found Tahj Ford for a 4-yard touchdown.
Caledonia will go to Kosciusko on Friday.
- West Lowndes 24, Ackerman 7: At Ackerman, The Panthers led 6-0 at halftime and stretched it to 18-7 at the end of the third quarter to improve to 6-2 and 3-0 in Class 2A, Region 2.
West Lowndes also scored in the fourth quarter.
K.J. Woods led Ackerman (1-8, 0-3) with 117 rushing yards on 23 carries. Dakota Brasher had the Indians” only score on a rushing touchdown.
West Lowndes will play host to Eupora on Friday.
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 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.