Friendship Christian Holds Off Nashville Christian For DII-A Football Title, 34-27

MVP Garrett Weekly Leads Commanders With 289 Yards Of Personal Offense

  • Thursday, December 1, 2022
  • Danny Webb
Friendship's Garrett Weekly hands off to Tyson Wolcott.
Friendship's Garrett Weekly hands off to Tyson Wolcott.
photo by M.A. Locke

Memorable moments were easy to come by in a wire-to-wire dogfight between the Friendship Christian School Commanders and the Nashville Christian School Eagles. Special teams oddities and timely offensive explosiveness from both sides kept the two talented squads locked in a close game all the way to the final seconds before Friendship Christian could come away with the 34-27 win..

The Eagles took the first turn making a special teams blunder before a second even ticked off the clock when they booted the opening kickoff out of bounds and gave Friendship Christian favorable field position for their first offensive campaign. Experienced senior quarterback Garrett Weekly picked up several good gainers on the ground in the Commanders’ first drive, but they weren’t able to take advantage of the good field position and turned the ball over after being stopped on fourth down.

Weekly is the grandson of Tennesse softball coach Karen Weekly and her husband, former co-head coach, Ralph.His father, Marc, also coached at UT.

The FCS offense was picked up by their defense though, which forced a three-and-out, and on the Commanders’ first play after the NCS punt, Weekly delivered a deep strike on the money to his go-to-guy Brock Mongomery for a 56-yard touchdown.

The Commanders’ celebration of their opening score was short-lived, however, as the ensuing kickoff was taken 95 yards to the house by senior James Warmbrod, who left the FCS coverage team in his dust. If that wasn’t enough to give you your fill of weird special teams, the extra point was blocked, and the Commanders held onto an early 7-6 lead. The kickoff? You guessed it–straight out of bounds, and FCS was once again set up at the 35-yard-line to begin their next drive.

After getting another defensive stop, NCS took over again, but on the first play of the drive, Freshman quarterback Jerad Curtis had his pass batted high into the air at the line of scrimmage, where it fell right into the waiting arms of defensive lineman Car’Lando Barton.

Starting their drive already in the red zone, Garrett Weekly and the Commanders wasted no time finding the endzone on a 17-yard touchdown pass to Brock Montgomery for his second score of the day. The quick strike didn’t come without a bit of controversy though when replay revealed that Montgomery had found himself wide open thanks to an incidental screen set by the official in the middle of the field, that would have surely resulted in an offensive foul had it taken place on a basketball court rather than on the gridiron.

Defenses for both teams tightened up and scoring opportunities were put on hold until midway through the second quarter when special teams peculiarity struck again. Nashville Christian deflected a punt, and the ball fluttered into the arms of Jonathan Robbins who was dropped at the FCS 19-yard-line to start the Eagles’ possession deep in plus territory as they searched for a tying score.

After a sack on first down, a poised Jared Curtis hit James Warmbrod on a slip screen who scampered 27 yards for his second trip to the end zone in the half.

As the second quarter winded down, Weekly led the Commander offense down the field and found Brock Montgomery once again for a touchdown, this one from four yards out. And yes, the PAT was blocked, so the FCS advantage remained at 7 heading into the locker room. Trailing by only 7 points had to feel like a win for Nashville Christian considering they only had 45 yards of total offense to the Commanders’ 194 and had possessed the ball for just seven minutes in the first half.

Coming out of the break, the Eagles struck quickly on a drive that included a huge gain on the ground from Jared Curtis, a fourth-down conversion from Cameron Carden, and a four-yard touchdown capper from Bryson Holt for the equalizer.

The Commanders struck back in under three minutes on a Tyson Walcott touchdown run, and suddenly this one was turning into a barn-burner.

Having taken a seven-point lead and pinning the Eagle offense in their own end with a 3rd and 24, the FCS defense came up with a game-changing play when Tyler Smiley picked off Curtis and sprinted untouched for a touchdown to double the Commanders’ lead at a score of 34-20 getting deep into the third quarter.

With desperation mode looming, Nashville Christian took the ball back at their own 6 yard line, and looking to respond after throwing a pick-6, Jared Curtis led an immaculate and balanced 94- yard drive capped off by a 19-yard end-around that James Warmbrod took into an end zone with which he was becoming quite well acquainted.

With seven minutes remaining, hunting an equalizing score, Curtis got his guys on the move again and after driving 75 yards, The Eagles had a first and goal from the 5-yard line. In an attempt to punch it in, Curtis handed off to Bryson Holt who, fighting to try for his second score of the game, was stripped by the Commander defense who recovered for a clutch, potentially game-saving turnover.

“To have a group of guys who can play four quarters of tough football and deal with the ups and downs is just… I couldn’t ask for more,” said Weekly. Weekly was awarded the championship game MVP trophy and will travel to California next fall to walk on at Stanford University.

With Nashville Christian’s timeouts dwindling as they were forced to stop the clock, the Commanders needed just one more first down to run out the clock and end the game. Instead, backs against the wall, the Eagles’ defense made a stand and got the ball back at their own 29 yard line, with no timeouts, and a 1:39 to play with a chance to tie the game.

Jared Curtis looked more polished than ever as he calmly led his team down the field with mature decision-making and accurate passing, clocking the ball when necessary. With 17 seconds to play, Curtis held the game in his hands on a fourth and goal from the four yard line. After taking a shotgun snap, Curtis was flushed to his right and threw toward the end zone, but as they had done all day, Friendship Christian School came up with a big play in a moment where they had to have it. This one came from Tyler Smiley who dove to his right and snagged the ball just before it hit the turf for his second interception of the game, this one proving to be the winner.

“Defense has been doing it all year,” said FCS head coach John McNeal “We lean our backs on our defense,” said McNeal

Clutch plays on defense and a tremendous 260 total-yard, three-touchdown performance from Weekly earned Friendship Christian School a breathtaking state Championship victory.

The Commanders conquered their ultimate goal for the season by hoisting the title trophy, one they’ve become familiar with through having a photograph of the trophy on the wall of their locker room since the season began.

“I walked in and I didn’t like it,” said McNeal. “I have to balance talking the talk, and walking the walk, and I’m old school. But then the kids were like, “why coach? That’s what we’re going to do.” so I didn’t say anything else and that bottom line is, if that’s how they feel, then let’s make it happen,” said McNeal.

SUMMARY

FRIENDSHIP CHRISTIAN

14

6

14

0

34

NASHVILLE CHRISTIAN

6

7

7

7

27

FC Brock Montgomery 56 pass from Garrett Weekly (Landon Williams kick) (5:00, 1st)

NC James Warmbrod 95 kickoff return (kick blocked) (4:48, 1st)

FC Montgomery 17 pass from Weekly (Williams kick) (1:27, 1st)

NC Warmbrod 27 pass from Curtis (Wyatt Martin kick) (7:08, 2nd)

FC Montgomery 4 pass from Weekly (kick blocked) (5:24, 2nd)

NC Bryson Holt 4 run (Martin kick) (9:31, 3rd)

FC Tyson Wolcott 3 run (Williams kick) (6:55, 3rd)

FC Tyler Smiley 35 interception return (Williams kick) (5:49, 3rd)

NC Warmbrod 19 run (Martin kick) (10:54, 4th)

STATS

FC

NC

First Downs

14

15

Rushes-Yards

154

126

Passing Yards

166

195

Total yards

320

321

Passing (Comp-Att-Int)

13-16-0

10-21-3

Penalties-Yards

4-30

2-23

Punts-Average

5-30.6

4-31.5

Fumbles-Lost

0-0

2-1

Time of Possession

26:30

21:30

Individual Stats

Rushing: Garrett Weekly 17-94; Tyson Wolcott 20-60 (FC); Jared Curtis 12-32; Cameron Carden 14-69; James Warmbrod 2-21 ; Brock Haywood 2-5; Bryson Holt 3-(-1) (NC).

Passing: Garrett Weekly 13-16-0 for 166 yards, 3 TDs (FC); Jared Curtis 10-21-3 for 195 yards, 1 TD (NC).

Receiving: Brock Montgomery 7-111; Chase Eakes 2-51; Channing Anthony 2-7; Tyson Wolcott 2-(-3) (FC); Donovan Smith 3-61; James Warmbrod 4-83; Jayden Satterfield 2-41; Cameron Carden 1-3 (NC).

Records: Friendship Christian 13-0 ; Nashville Christian 10-3

Most valuable Player: Garrett Weekly, Friendship Christian

Cameron Carden breaks free for Nashville Christian.
Cameron Carden breaks free for Nashville Christian.
photo by M.A. Locke
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