RTCA Falls To Pinewood
Robert Toombs Christian Academy Crusaders football team opened up their season against rival Pinewood Christian Academy. RTCA fought back late to make the score respectable. Pinewood won the game 38-28 over RTCA.
Pinewood got on the board first on a 26-yard pass with 8:13 left in the first quarter of the game. That pass capped off a 93-yard drive for the Patriots and gave them a 6-0 lead as the two-point try failed.
Later in the first quarter RTCA recovered a fumble with just over four minutes on the clock at the Pinewood 45-yard line. RTCA moved the ball down the field with help from runs by David Hill and Aaron Hankerson. Elijah Baker moved the ball to the 9-yard line with 1:40 left in the first quarter. Quarterback Hayden Kight went up the middle on the next play, had the ball knocked loose at the 2-yard line, it flew up in the air and was pulled down by Hankerson for the touchdown. Hayden Meeks added the extra point to put RTCA on top 7-6.
Pinewood took the lead back early in the second quarter, giving them a 12-7 lead with just over 11 minutes still to play in the first half.
RTCA fumbled the ensuing kickoff, and Pinewood recovered the ball in RTCA territory. They moved the ball down the field and went in for the touchdown to give them an 18-7 lead with 9:52 continued from page
left in the first half. Pinewood added another touchdown to give them a 24-7 lead with four minutes to go in the first half of action.
RTCA fumbled the ball just a few plays in to their next possession, and Pinewood took the ball down the field and scored on the final play of the first half. That gave them a 32-7 lead heading into halftime with a successful twopoint conversion.
In the second half of the game Pinewood pushed their lead to 38-7 before the Crusaders could find the end zone again.
Hill had a big run that set up an 11-yard touchdown run by Kight. Meeks made it 38-14 with two minutes left in the third quarter of the game.
In the fourth quarter Justin Powell added 50yard touchdown runs to close the lead to 38-21 with 8:53 to play. RTCA added one more score on another Powell run from near the goal line. That made it 38-28 with just 1:24 to go in the game.
Pinewood held on to win the game by that score.
Top three offensive players of the game were Hayden Kight with 48 pass yards, Justin Powell with 104 rushing yards, and David Hill with 109 rushing yards.
Coach Matt Meeks said, 'No, the final result wasn't what we were wanting or hoping for, but we showed tremendous grit to fight and battle for four quarters. We actually won there out of the four quarters. We just made way too many mistakes that Pinewood capitalized on in the second quarter that put the game a little too far out of reach for us.
I am extremely proud of how the guys collected themselves after half time and how we proceeded to attack the second half one play at a time and matured tremendously through that half. I feel extremely good about how we ended the game once we settled in and regained our composure.”
This week RTCA will play host to Harvester Christian on Friday night with kickoff at 7:30 p.m.
