Yellow Jackets roll over Ridgeland
ROSSVILLE — Scoring the first six times they had the football Friday night, and five times in the first quarter alone, Calhoun rolled Ridgeland, 56-7.
Going into the game, head coach Clay Stephenson had said he wanted his team to fly around from the opening whistle, and all evening long they were soaring.
Senior quarterback Christian Lewis threw four firsthalf touchdowns and senior wide receiver Cole Speer ran in two more as the visitors scored their first touchdown less than two minutes into the game and never looked back, taking a 42-0 halftime lead.
Both of those gentlemen, along with the rest of the starters, then took the second half off with everyone on the roster getting a chance to play.
Calhoun would add two more scores late in the fourth quarter led by backup quarterbacks Trey Townsend and freshman Andrew Purdy for a 56-0 lead before the Panthers scored a touchdown with under 10 seconds remaining in the game against basically Calhoun freshman team.
From the coin flip, it was pretty obvious the Yellow Jackets were going to be the aggressor all night, electing to take the opening kickoff — taking a 7-0 lead before Ridgeland ever snapped the ball.
CHS returned the opening kick to their own 41 and Lewis went to the air on the first play from scrimmage, finding Peyton Law for a 44-yard pass down to the Ridgeland 15.
Eventually, Lewis threw a short pass to Quin Smith for a nine yard touchdown with 10:14 remaining in the first quarter.
From there it was pretty much rinse and repeat the rest of the half as Ridgeland couldn’t move the ball and Calhoun could not be stopped.
The Jackets needed just two plays for their second touchdown.
Taking over at their own 48 after a Panther punt, Lewis hooked up with Speer for a 43-yard touchdown pass down the sideline on a second-and-short play to make it 14-nothing less than three minutes later.
A Speer 22-yard run; a Lewis 8-yard pass to Peyton Law; and a 10-yard pass from Lewis to a diving Brendan Gray accounted for the other three touchdowns the Jackets would score in the first quarter, giving them a commanding 35-0 advantage after 12 minutes of play.
At that point, the Calhoun coaching staff began filtering in the backups but they kept adding on, scoring another touchdown in the second quarter.
After recovering a fumble, aided by junior Cam Curtis’s 19-yard gain, Speer went 33 yards untouched for their final score of the first half.
In the fourth quarter, Townsend threw a 33-yard touchdown pass to sophomore wideout Bryant Arnold and junior running back Corbin Fuller ran 12 yards for Calhoun’s eighth touchdown of the night.
The Jackets were also successful in the PAT department, going 8-for-8 with kicker Sergio Sanchez connecting for six and freshman Carlos Lopez adding two more.
Calhoun is 2-1 the year and continues non-region action next Friday night back on the road at Woodstock.