After back-to-back weeks of blow out losses, the Colonels respond in a big way.
Yes, the final score was a 35-19 loss on the road to Madisonville, but the effort was apparent, and that final score is not indicative of how the game unfolded.
For instance, Christian County gave up three hundred plus yards rushing to Logan and Henderson County. They gave up just 156 to Madisonville.
In back-to-back weeks the Colonels entered the 2nd half nearly or already under a running clock. This week we spent the majority of the second half in a two point game.
Head Coach Blake Ladson had told me they had a very physical week of practice, and it showed.
The intensity of the hits on defense, the hard nosed running by the offense, and an effort and mindset to keep pushing through adversity were clear and obvious.
The Colonels scored first on a deep route from Jordan Miles to Elijah Underhill. After giving up fourteen points on the next few possessions, Christian County instead of crumbling, rose to the occasion.
Cyrus Greenwade brought his talents to the offense and broke off a couple big runs before Miles ultimately turned a busted pass play into a scamper and score.
The Maroons did block the PAT attempt making it 14-13 at the half.
Both teams initially stalled out on offense in the second half before a very talented Freshman in Markezz Hightower scampered in for his second Maroons score and made it 21-13.
Once again, no panic by the Colonel offense, even when things seemingly did not go their way.
After what seemed an obvious first down, the ball was spotted short on third down forcing a fourth and one situation for the Colonels.
Miles decided that if they would not give his team the first down, he would just take a touchdown.
He took off, untouched, down the right sideline for the score. The two-point conversion failed and we sat at 21-19.
That was the score for quite awhile until, after a night of hard hits and immense effort, the Christian County defense finally broke down and just could not muster the effort on a couple key third downs and an extended Maroon drive ultimately resulted in another rushing TD and a score of 28-19.
That should have been our final score, but late in the fourth with the ball and driving, the Maroons decided to poor it on and despite Coach Ladson calling all three timeouts and his defense fighting to hold off the Madisonville offense, they found the endzone again with eight seconds to go to give us the final score of 35-19.
All in all, there is so very much to be proud of if you are a Christian County fan. They fought hard, played harder, and showed significant improvement. Are there things to work on, absolutely. For now though, this breathes life into a big game next week with cross-county rival Hopkinsville.
The Tigers will be licking their wounds after a 35-6 loss to Bowling Green and both teams will be trying to get win number two on the season. So far both have defeated Caldwell County for their sole win.
Pre-Game will begin at 6:20 for the Hoptown broadcast and 6:35 for the Christian County Broadcast with kick-off at seven.