NCA gets first win in 8-man and first since 2019 season
The Newton County Academy football team came close to getting their first win in almost two seasons last week.
On Friday night, the Generals put all talks of a losing streak to rest.
The Generals used a potent rushing attack and pulled away to beat Christian Collegiate 42-30.
The win was the first of the season for the Generals under coach Stevie Nelson in eight-man football.
“It was a great team win,” Nelson said. “We had some kids that stepped up and made some big plays. The quarterback and running backs made some good runs but they can’t do that without the offensive line. I thought we ran to the ball on defense. I thought the offensive line did a good job and when you have a good, strong running back like Colby Hollingsworth, it shortens the game. And I thought it took a toll on them. We were willing to take the four to six yards and it just wore on them.”
Christian Collegiate got the ball to open the game and went 43 yards in seven plays, scoring on a 20-yard run. The try for two failed and Christian Collegiate led 6-0.
The Generals answered as they put together an 11-play, 72-yard drive and Hollingsworth scored on an 11-yard run to finish off the drive. Hollingsworth also ran in the two-point conversion and NCA led 8-6.
Christian Collegiate answered right back with a 10-yard touchdown pass but failed at the two-point conversion and led 12-8.
But the Generals answered right back as Trace Evans hit Hollingsworth on a perfectly executed screen pass that went for 20 yards for a touchdown. The try for two failed and NCA led 14-12.
But Christian Collegiate answered back again, this time on a 68-yard touchdown run. The try for two failed and Christian Collegiate retook the lead at 18-14.
The Generals responded with a nine-play, 65-yard drive as Hunter Scarbrough scored on a 25-yard run. The try for two failed and NCA led 20-18.
Christian Collegiate looked as if was going to take the lead into the half as a big pass play moved the Bulldogs to the NCA 10. But the NCA defense held and the Generals took to lead into the half.
“I thought that was really big at the end of the first half,” Nelson said. “I thought they had scored on the long pass play but we ran them down. That gave us the momentum going into the half and then we got the ball to start the second half and scored and went up by two scores. I thought that was the turning point in the game for us. It was a great win for us.”
The Generals got the ball to start the second half and promptly went 65 yards in eight plays as Scarbrough scored on a 13-yard touchdown run. The try for two failed and NCA led 26-18.
Christian Collegiate made it 26-24 on a 45-yard touchdown run but that was as close as the Bulldogs got.
NCA started to pull away as Trace Evans hit Micah Garrison on a 40-yard touchdown pass with 4:57 left in the third. Scarbrough ran in the two-point conversion and NCA led 34-24.
The Generals got the ball back on a fumbled punt by Christian Collegiate and Evans hit Garrison on a 35-yard touchdown pass and Hollingsworth scored the two-point conversion as NCA took a 42-24 lead.
The Generals had 286 yards rushing and 134 passing for 420 yards of total offense. Hollingsworth led the offense with 163 yards on 22 carries while Scarbrough had 78 yards on five carries. Evans had 74 yards rushing on five carries and was 4-of-12 passing and three passing TDs. Garrison had 75 yards receiving on two catches.
On defense, Scarbrough led the team with 16 tackles while Hollingsworth had 13 tackles. Garrison had nine tackles while Braxton Kelly and Tyler Castillo had seven tackles.
