Chiefs and Patriots improve to 3-1, Landmark wins and Whitewater and Starr's Mill lose

Landmark Christian traveled to take on their local rivals, the Our Lady of Mercy Bobcats, on Friday. The Bobcats have never defeated the War Eagles in football, but the schools do play competitively in nearly every other sport.

Landmark had a 14-0 lead over the Our Lady of Mercy Bobcats at the half after touchdown runs from Austin Broussard and Robert Trotter. Rashard Fant, a freshman for the Bobcats, ran 42 yards for a touchdown on the first play of the third quarter, but Landmark got three more touchdown runs in the second half, including runs from Gabriel Cobb and Austin Nichols.

McIntosh improved to 3-1 with a 21-7 win over Northside, Columbus. Cam Porter caught a touchdown pass, threw for another to Spencer Wood and returned a punt for another, while the defense, led by Sean Carney 12 total tackles, a tackle for a loss, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery and Andrew Graham, 13 total tackles, two for a loss, kept their opponents off the scoreboard until the final minute. Brian Harper added four tackles and an interception, while Clay Carroll added seven tackles and David Sousley added six and a sack.

“This was a big win for our program,” said head coach Glenn Griffin. “it gives us some momentum going into an open week.” The Chiefs had five starters out due to injury or sickness, but should have everyone back on Oct. 2 when they host Fayette County.

“The players are excited because they realize that bad things happen to all football teams, but it doesn’t mean that the game is over,” said Griffin. “Our special teams are improving. Matt Mateos had another good night kicking and Jonathon Hust pressed into deep snapping duties the last two weeks because of an injury to one player and sickness to another has done an outstanding job.

The Chiefs had not won three games in a season since 2005.

Sandy Creek (3-1) hosted Osborne and won 34-7 behind touchdowns from Rajion Neal, Devon Hughes (four catches, 20 yards) and the defense after an interception. The Patriots rushed for 190 yards and Neal had 146 of those yards on 17 carries. Isaiah Johnson had two intereptions and he lateraled one to Bruce Dukes who ran 32 yards for a touchdown. The Sandy Creek defense held Osborne to 111 total yards, only 19 of which came on the ground. Clinard Stokes led the team in tackles with 10, including one for a loss, while Xavier Chisum added six tackles and Levon Alls, Dukes and Mike Hilton all had five.

Sandy Creek will return from the bye week to play at Whitewater on Oct. 2.

Whitewater took an early 6-0 lead on Carrollton with a run from junior Brandon Collins. The Trojans scored 21 straight points before a touchdown reception from Jeffrey Ashley and a two point conversion cut the lead to 21-14. Whitewater couldn’ summon another scoring drive though and lost.

Starr’s Mill (1-3) also struck first in their game on Friday as Jeffrey Greene returned an interception 60 yards for a touchdown and a 7-0 lead over Sprayberry. The return set a new school record. Kenneth James previously held the record with a 58 yard scoring return in 2003 against Fayette County. The Panthers rushed for 109 yards and quarterback Adam Holley passed for 115. Trenton Edwards was the leading rusher with 65 yards and Greene was the leading receiver with two catches for 49 yards. Sprayberry tied the game before the half and then added two touchdowns in the second half to win 21-7.

Starr’s Mill’s next game is Oct. 2 at Northgate.

Fayette County topped Luella 35-34 in two overtimes to even the Tigers’ record at 2-2. Fayette County was down 21-7 in the fourth quarter but came back to score 21 straight points to take a 28-21 lead. Luella tied the game with 51 seconds left and the two teams battled to a draw in the first overtime with Faette County blocking a field goal. In the second overtime, Fayette County converted their point after a touchdown, while Luella did not as the Tigers blocked an extra point.

Kendall Palmore had 71 yards rushing on 15 carries for two touchdowns, while Armani Cato rushed for 68 yards and quarterback Justin Murray added 11 yards rushing and a touchdown. Murray also threw for 148 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. Palmore had a receiving touchdown, while Darnell Brown had another. Eric Lauderdale had four catches for 50 yards.

Defensively, the Tigers were led by eight tackles and eight assists from Tago Smith, eight tackles and two assists from Jonathan Seldon, six tackles and seven assists from Mike Martin and five tackles and five assits from Nick Mercer.