Heritage Finishes With Winning Season
The Eagles of Vidalia Heritage Academy played in their first Varsity Playoff game last Friday night as they hosted Horizon Christian Academy out of Cumming, GA. It was the first round of the GAPPS Football State Playoffs. The injury depleted Eagles gave it their all, but fell short to the Warriors of Horizon. Heritage had the ball to start the game. Horizon got into the backfield a couple of times and pushed back the Eagles and forced them to punt the ball away. Horizon started out near midfield after the punt. They broke a run for 32 yards down to the Heritage 20yard line. After a penalty they faced a third-and-19, but two penalties against Heritage and a nice run for Horizon and the Warriors were in the end zone for the first touchdown of the game with 6:56 left in the first quarter. They tacked on the extra point for a 7-0 lead.
Heritage started at their 40-yard line after a pooch kick by Horizon. The Eagles nearly missed a big play as #3 dove for a pass from quarterback Ledger Curl, but it went just off his finger tips. Heritage was forced to punt the ball, but the kick was fumbled by Horizon with Heritage jumping on it at the Warriors' 32-yard line.
The Eagles struggled to get the offense going and turned the ball over on downs at the 25-yard line with 2:44 left in the opening quarter. Horizon had a couple of penalties that pushed them back into a fourth-and-long as the first quarter came to an end. On the first play of the second quarter the Eacontinued from page
gles got a stop and took over on downs at the Warriors' 27-yard line. The Eagles threw an interception a few plays later that gave Horizon great field position at the VHA 31yard line.
The Heritage defense continued to play well and hold up the Warrior offense, but a penalty and a nice run gave the Warriors a first down at the 15-yard line. On the next play Horizon went in for a score with 8:05 left in the first half. There was a bad snap on the extra point but they led 13-0.
Heritage started at the 35-yard line on their next possession, but a couple of penalties and Heritage faced a long third-and-35. The Eagles had to punt the ball away with Horizon taking over at the Heritage 37-yard line.
The defense continued to play well as they forced another punt from the Warriors and that gave VHA the ball at their 47-yard line with 3:50 left in the first half. On the first play Curl found a hole and took it all the way to the 8-yard line. Heritage pushed it inside the 5-yard line on a run by #3, but the Eagles threw an interception at the goal line that was returned out to the 25-yard line.
The Warriors quickly moved the ball across midfield, but the defense stepped up for Heritage and kept them out of the end zone as the first half was coming to an end. That made the halftime score 13-0 with Heritage trailing.
In the second half of the game Horizon scored two more times, with the Eagles finding the end zone just once. That made the final score 26-6 with the Eagles falling.
It was another big step in the right direction, though, this season for the Eagles as they got into the playoffs for the first time, and had their first winning season with a 6-3 overall record. It was injuries that plagued them all season with several of their top players going down. The results could have been very different if the Eagles had been at full strength.
