Second-half stumbles cost St. Aloysius again

Published 1:45 am Saturday, September 24, 2016

The St. Aloysius Flashes snapped out of their offensive funk, just not their losing funk.

Adams County Christian School scored 29 points in the fourth quarter Friday night and went on to hand St. Al its sixth consecutive loss, 50-32.

St. Al is 0-6 to start this season, but has led or been tied in the second half of four of those games. It took a 17-14 lead in the third quarter Friday on a 20-yard field goal by Gradon Bourne before ACCS ripped off 28 straight points to take control.

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“Everybody wants to win. Nobody moreso than the kids, and that’s what you hate because they are playing hard. It’s some depth issues we’re having that’s hurting us,” St. Al coach BJ Smithhart said. “You can’t fault our kids’ effort.”

St. Al did at least find an offensive spark. The 32 points it scored were more than it had in the previous two games combined, as well as a season high.

Sophomore quarterback Antonio Thompson returned to the lineup after sitting out one game with an injury, and threw two touchdown passes to Ryan Theriot and Tyler Lewis.

Brandon Teller also had a touchdown reception, on a halfback pass from Jake Pierce.

Smithhart said getting several players back from injury helped the Flashes find a groove.

“I think the biggest thing is, we haven’t had much consistency because we had a revolving door with our injuries,” Smithhart said. “It helped us so much when we got Brandon and Antonio on offense together. The first week of the season was the first week Antonio had played quarterback in a high school game, and he’s getting more comfortable. And then having Brandon and Tyler out wide helped us a bunch.”

Tallulah Academy 60, Christian Collegiate 41

Ryan Hodge rushed for 248 yards and six touchdowns, and Tallulah Academy (6-0) scored 32 points in the third quarter to take control and beat Christian Collegiate Academy in a rematch of last year’s MAIS Eight-Man championship game.

Tallulah trailed 21-14 at halftime, but Hodge scored on a 55-yard run early in the third quarter to pull it within a point. Luke Fortenberry ran in the two-point conversion, and the Trojans never trailed again.

Hodge added touchdown runs of 2 and 11 yards, and Fortenberry broke off a 68-yarder to put the Trojans ahead 46-21 heading into the fourth quarter. Hodge helped seal the win with touchdown runs of 62 and 49 yards in the final period.

Raie Garza added 85 rushing yards and a touchdown reception, and Fortenberry had 82 rushing yards.