Patriots Push Past Knights

The American Christian Academy Patriots defeated the Tuscaloosa Academy Knights 33-20 on Friday night.

"TA came out, they came out swinging. They played a really, really good game. We gotta clean up some of our mistakes, but overall, I'm pretty pleased with it," said American Christian Academy head coach Cody Martin.

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Tuscaloosa Academy got on the board first, scoring two quick touchdowns on the Patriots mistakes. American Christian received the ball to start the game, however quarterback Kai Young threw an interception. Then, the Patriots fumbled the kickoff and the Knights recovered the ball. Ellis Hamiter recorded both touchdowns, a six-yard and 26-yard scores.

American Christian Academy scored a hat trick of touchdowns to score 20 unanswered points and take the lead. The first touchdown was an eight-yard score by running back Jackson Willingham, the second was a one-yard quarterback sneak by Kai Young, and the third was a two-yard run by Willingham to give the Patriots the 20-14 advantage  heading into halftime.

Tuscaloosa Academy scored on its opening drive out of the second half, going 67 yards in 12 plays. Quarterback Preston Lancaster threw a 17-yard touchdown pass to James Stanard to tie up the ballgame.

However, the Patriots scored two more touchdowns to seal the win, a five-yard touchdown reception from Young to Caleb Morrison and a one-yard run by Willingham.

The Knights attempted a comeback, driving down to the 24-yard line with four minutes remaining the in the game, but two straight incompletions by Lancaster turned the ball over on downs.

"Both teams played their hearts out. Both of us had mistakes, and they just made a few more plays than we did, but hats off to them, hats off to our guys. It was just a good high school football game to watch," said Tuscaloosa Academy head coach Josh Wright.

For more content on high school football from Kim Rankin, follow her on X/Twitter at @kmrankin1 and don't forget to visit Tide1009.com for daily content and access to our newsletter.

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