Gridiron grit
Christian Heritage Academy took on Mount St. Mary in a battle between small-school football teams.
Zach Hale caught the opening kickoff at the 17-yard line and ran about 5 yards before he turned his head to look back across the field.
Standing wide open around the 20 was Bridge Bullard, waiting with nobody around him.
“I was a little nervous to throw it,” Hale said. “But we really practiced it all week and I trusted Bridge so I let it fly.”
Hale fired and Bullard did the rest, taking the throwback toss 80 yards to give Christian Heritage Academy its first points of the night.
CHA (3-0) would go on to win 30-14 against rival Mount St. Mary (1-1), and coach Tony Merrell said the opening play helped his team grab momentum early.
“Our special teams coach Chad Cargill is a crazy man,” Merrell said. “Those explosion plays really helped get us going in the first half. Our defense had to finish the job in the second.”
CHA only managed a little more than 200 yards of total offense, but took advantage of Mount St. Mary mistakes to find the end zone four times in the first half.
After a botched Mount
St. Mary punt, Bullard scored again on a 4-yard pass from quarterback Camden Cargill.
Mount St. Mary cut the lead to 8 after junior linebacker Kaysen Fisher picked up a fumble after Cargill was sacked and ran it 46 yards for a touchdown.
But CHA answered with a seven-play, 83-yard drive that ended in a Cargill touchdown run from 11 yards out.
Cargill finished 13 of 23 for 146 yards passing and rushed for the one score.
CHA lineman Will Huebert picked up a fumble on another botched punt snap and ran it six yards to put the Crusaders up 30-6 before the half.
The defenses took over in the second half with Mount St. Mary blitzing Cargill on nearly every play.
Colton Cox scored Mount St. Mary’s lone offensive touchdown on a 1-yard dive into the end zone to cap a nine-play, 53-yard drive in the third quarter, but that would be the last points scored on the night for either team.
Merrell said he considered this win a milestone victory because it gives CHA a 3-0 record for the first time since joining the OSSAA in 2007.
“We’ve always played a really tough schedule early and we’ve slipped up a couple times,” he said. “So we are feeling really great about reaching this moment as a program.”
In the loss, Mount St. Mary quarterback Tanner Wade threw for 136 yards on 17 of 35 passing. Junior running back Colton Cox ran for more than 100 yards and one touchdown.