Prep Football: Heritage Christian clinches 1st Region title
From STAFF REPORTSsports@newnan.com
Heritage Christian’s first ICSGA 8-man Region football title has been a long time coming for head coach Alan Williams.
But a dominating 68-36 victory on Friday over Praise Academy at East Coweta Middle School’s McKnight Field was well worth the wait.
Finishing as the No. 1 seed in the North Region at 5-0, Heritage Christian will now host the fourth-place finisher from the South next Friday at East Coweta Middle School. The win pushed the Crusaders record to 7-1 while staying unbeaten against ICGSA opponents this year.
“Al should get a lot of the credit for this,” added assistant coach Joey Farlow. “He’s been here since the beginning. This is a big payoff for him and this program.”
Behind a stout offensive line, Heritage Christian jumped out to a 24-0 lead in the first quarter and kept a 32-14 advantage at halftime. A front comprised of 200-pounders Jesse Parkerson, Christian Parkerson, Jerald Dewveall and Tyler Smith was reunited with senior Gordon Smith on Friday in a return from injury.
The result was a whopping 309-yard, five touchdown effort from junior fullback J.D. Farlow and three more scores from senior teammate Austin Reeves.
Reeves finished with 122 yards rushing and caught a touchdown pass on a halfback option from Farlow before halftime to keep the momentum in the Crusaders’ favor all night.
Defensive tackle Jeremiah Winkles maintained the early lead with a fumble recovery in the first half while helping dominate the other line of scrimmage.
