Evangel drops 22 in second quarter to pull away from Lighthouse

By CHRIS MEGGINSON | Special to the Reporter

HUNTSVILLE – The Evangel Christian Lightning used a 22-point second quarter to extinguish Lighthouse Home School on Friday, Sept. 27 with a 41-12 victory in the Alabama Christian School Conference.

It is the fourth-straight win for the Lightning, which are now 2-0 in the ACSC.

“It was a good win on the road, a wet one, against a good opponent,” Evangel head coach Tim Smith said. “Anytime you can go on the road in our conference and get a win, especially playing 8-man on an 11-man field, you never know.”

Kemp Swords collected 233 yards of total offense and four touchdowns to lead Evangel. He threw for 159 yards on 8-of-12 passing and two touchdowns while also running for 74 yards and two scores.

After Eli Black scored on a 2-yard run in the first quarter, Swords scored on runs of 58 and 1 yards in the second quarter. He completed two-point plays to Nick Cloud and Black to give ECS a 22-0 lead. Black then hauled in a 75-yard touchdown reception from Swords to lead 28-0 before Lighthouse scored its first points before the half, 28-6.

Cloud added a 2-yard touchdown run in the third quarter, and Swords had a 39-yard touchdown pass to Ben Davis to close out the Lightning scoring. Lighthouse scored once more in the fourth.

Black accounted for 133 yards on offense, adding 53 yards rushing and a 5-yard pass to his 75-yard touchdown reception. He also joined Reed Castleberry with eight tackles and one sack apiece to lead the defense. Cloud finished with 69 yards on seven rushes.

Evangel (6-1) will quickly return to an 11-man practice routine this week as it prepares to travel to the top ranked team in AISA Class 3A, Chambers Academy, on Oct. 4. The Lightning have only three regular season games remaining.

“We’re going to have our hands full,” Smith said of his final 11-man game before closing out the 8-man season. “I think we’re a little better than we thought we would be at this time. We play so many kids, and a lot of these kids have grown up. We’re playing pretty good 8-man football right now. We only have three regular season games left.”

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