STEENS — Success for the Winona Christian football team this season will start with the offensive line.
That may sound like a simple statement applicable to any team, but when you have seven seniors on your roster capable of playing on the offensive or defensive lines, you”re going to win a lot of battles up front.
Winona Christian won more than enough at the point of attack Friday night en route to a 14-0 victory against Immanuel Christian in the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools” season opener for both teams.
“I lost one offensive linemen last year,” Winona Christian coach Joe Boyette said. “They”re all seniors. Most of them have started for a couple of years, and for the first game it wasn”t too bad.”
Winona Christian overcame the loss of senior running back/linebacker Caleb Herring on the sixth play of the game. Herring had to be helped off the field with what coach Joe Herring said after the game appeared to be a knee injury.
Despite the loss of a team leader like Herring, the Stars bulled their way to 167 rushing yards on 47 carries. Those might not sound like eye-popping numbers, but the quarterback sneak was one of the Stars” most effective plays. Quarterback C.J. Hodges scored on a 4-yard push up the middle in the second quarter to push the lead to 8-0. He grinded out another 10 yards on a move right up the gut in the third quarter to keep a drive alive.
“He has almost his whole line back from last year, and he has one kid back who didn”t play last year due to an injury, and he is one of his top linemen,” Immanuel Christian coach Greg Watkins said. “We did a decent job at times, but then at times we stood up, and when we stood up they took advantage.”
Immanuel Christian hurt itself by not catching the football. The Rams had at least five fumbles (one lost), but each one derailed the rhythm of an offense that is still adjusting to first-year coach Greg Watkins” misdirection scheme.
The Rams used Columbus High transfer Jason Davis, sophomore Darius Jones, and sophomore Brendan Bailey at quarterback. All three had problems with the exchange from center and handling the football. It also didn”t help that the Stars were able to push their way into the backfield and limit the Rams to 45 rushing yards on 26 carries.
“It would be different if it would be something we couldn”t correct,” said Watkins, who was head coach last year at Hebron Christian. “All of the mishaps we had on offense — the fumbled snaps — up under center and in the shotgun, we dropped too many balls. When we executed the plays we went anywhere from 5 yards to 20 yards, and then we would shoot ourselves in the foot with a fumbled snap.”
The first half was one to forget for the Rams.
A punt by Hodges pinned Immanuel Christian down at its 1 in the opening quarter. Two plays later, Brooks Lott tackled Jones in the end zone for a safety. The Rams started other drives from their 3 and their 20. The only other drive in the half ended when Hodges intercepted a halfback pass by Michael Tate.
Things improved a little in the second half. Immanuel Christian earned its initial first down on a 6-yard rush by Norris Harris (team-high 40 rushing yards) on the Rams” opening drive of the third quarter. But Immanuel Christian couldn”t sustain the momentum on that drive or in the fourth quarter, when it came up inches short of a first down trailing 14-0 with a little less than 10 minutes to play in the game.
A 40-yard shovel pass by Bailey to Davis moved the Rams into the Stars” territory with less than five minutes to go, but Davis couldn”t catch the snap on fourth-and-5 from the Winona 40 to end the march.
“If we keep executing without those mishaps we can bust those big plays,” Watkins said. “I did (think we were going to get into that rhythm). In the second half we came out and put together two good first downs and then fumbled a snap. It seemed like when we fumbled a snap it just kind of throws our offense off.”
Watkins praised his defense for keeping the Rams in the game. Cameron Lepard scored on a 7-yard run with 10 minutes, 54 seconds remaining in the game to make it 14-0. But James Wriley and Will Harmond teamed on a sack and Wriley and Zac Johnwick got together on another one on the next drive.
“I thought at the end we showed a little energy, which showed the kind of heart the kids have,” Watkins said. “We”re going to get better and correct some of the little mistakes we made and we”ll be OK.”
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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