Christ Presbyterian Academy is the class of Division II-AA football for the second straight year.
The Lions, who ended Boyd Buchanan’s season two weeks ago in the semifinals, gave up an early touchdown to the Battle Ground Academy Wildcats, but came back strong to win again, this time by a 38-26 final in the first state title game at Finley Stadium.
These two teams had played the first time on Sept. 19 with the Lions rolling to a 49-16 victory, but the Wildcats have gotten much better since that time and were much more competitive the second time around.
CPA coach Ingle Martin was really happy to watch his kids win their 13th game without a defeat, but he’s more focused on developing fine young men who will be successful later in life than just winning football games.
“Winning state titles is nice, but it’s not that big a deal in the big picture. Drive two hours down the road and nobody cares who won this game, but we’re just trying to prepare these young men for what really matters later in life,” Martin said just outside the CPA dressing room.
“I’m really pleased with how we played today, especially the defense. We stopped them a couple of times on fourth down and I thought we did a nice job taking care of the football. We were thinking back in July that we had a chance to win every game, but winning this last one is the one we wanted most. The best news is that we’re the best team in Division II, Class AA. We’ll worry about moving up to the next division when next season gets here,” he smiled.
Bobby Bentley just ended his first season as the BGA head coach and he was really happy with the way his kids competed and just how far they have come since the beginning.
“That was a heck of a game,” he began as his players slowly headed toward the BGA dressing room.
“The biggest thing was that we needed to stop the run and we didn’t, but I’m really proud of how far we’ve come since I got there. This was much better than the first time we played,” he nodded.
The biggest factor for the Lions in this latest win was the effort of junior running back Rawls Patterson, who had a career day on a single afternoon. He was an obvious choice for the MVP honors after gaining 336 yards on 27 carries and scoring four of the five CPA touchdowns.
The Wildcats had the biggest surprise of the day when they recovered an onside kick at the start of the game. They then marched 52 yards in five plays, taking the early 7-0 lead when Ethan Kellum scored on a run from the 9 with 9:43 left in the opening stanza.
The Lions didn’t flinch as they got on the board on their first possession when John West booted a 26-yard field goal at the 6:45 mark of the first quarter. CPA then took the lead for the last time at 10-7 when Patterson scored on a run from the 5 with 1:25 left in the first quarter.
Patterson added his second TD on a three-yard run with 41 seconds left in the half for a 17-7 lead, but BGA came right back for a 33-yard field goal by Syrus Harr as the halftime buzzer sounded.
The big play in the drive was a 40-yard pass from quarterback Kaedyn Marable to Arnett Hayes that moved the ball from the 44 to the 16 as the clock was winding down. Harr added a 32-yard field goal with 7:54 to play in the third to get BGA within four at 17-13, but that was as close as it would get as the Lions then scored three straight touchdowns.
Patterson had TDs on runs of 35 and 12 yards while Owen Cabell had a seven-yard pass from Hutson Chance to put CPA up, 38-13, with 4:22 to play.
BGA scored with 1:32 to play when Marable tossed a six-yard pass to Fletcher Fields. After recovering their second onside kick of the game, Marable came right back to throw a 37-yard pass to Hayes to cut the lead to 12 with 1:14 to play.
The Wildcats then made it three for three on onside kicks and while BGA drove down to the CPA 14, the game ended when a Marable pass fell incomplete.
While Patterson was the workhorse for CPA as the Lions finished with 421 total yards, Hayes was equally as impressive for the Wildcats as he had 15 receptions for 260 yards.
BGA finished the game with 513 total yards.
Thursday’s loss gave BGA a final record of 11-3 and ended a five-game winning streak.
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BATTLE GROUND ACADEMY
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7
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3
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3
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13
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--26
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CHRIST PRESBYTERIAN
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10
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7
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7
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14
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-- 38
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SCORING SUMMARY:
First Quarter
BGA 09:43 Ethan Kellum 9 run (Syrus Harr kick) 0-7
CPA 06:45 John West 26 Field Goal 3-7
CPA 01:25 Rawls Patterson 5 run (John West kick) 10-7
Second Quarter
CPA 00:45 Rawls Patterson 3 run (John West kick) 17-7
BGA 00:00 Syrus Harr 33 Field Goal17-10
Third Quarter
BGA 07:54 Syrus Harr 32 Field Goal 17-13
CPA 06:07 Rawls Patterson 35run (John West kick) 24-13
Fourth Quarter
CPA 11:03 Owen Cabell 7 pass from Hutson Chance (John West kick) 31-13
CPA 04:22 Rawls Patterson 12 run (John West kick) 38-13
BGA 01:32 Fletcher Fields 6 pass from kaedyn Marable (pass failed) 38-19
BGA 01:14 Arnett Hayes 37 pass from Kaedyn Marable (Syrus Harr kick) 38-26
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TEAM STATS
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BGA
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CPA
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First Downs
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19
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21
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Rushes-Yards
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25-160
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34-347
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Passing Yards
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353
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74
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Total yards
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513
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421
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Passing (Comp-Att-Int)
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27-43-0
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9-13-0
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Penalties-Yards
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14=117
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7-65
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Punts-Average
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2-47.5
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1-39.0
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Fumbles-Lost
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0-0
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0-0
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Third Down Conversions
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5-13
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5-7
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Time of Possession
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26:22
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21:38
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Individual Stats
Rushing: Ethan Kellum 11-71; Kaedyn Marable 0-51; Fletcher Fields 4-38; Locke Kennedy 1-(-1) (BGA); Rawls Patterson 27-336; Dylan Reid 4-9; Owen Cabell 1-1; Bradshaw Klym 2-1 (CPA).
Passing: Kaedyn Marable 26 of 40 for 323 yards and 2 touchdowns; Locke Kennedy1 of 1 for 30 yards; Team 0 for 2 (BGA); Hutson Chance 9 of 13 for 74 yards and 1 touchdown (CPA).
Receiving Arnett Hayes 15-260; Fletcher Fields 4-57; Locke Kennedy 4-17; Cates Kennedy 2-5; Max Curry 1-11; Ethan Kellum 1-3 (BGA); Owen Cabell 3-27; Weston Parker 2-28; Knox McLean 2-10; Brock Beddingfield 1-5; Weston Willeford 1-4 (CPA).
Most Valuable Player: Rawls Patterson (CPA)
Notable: CPA goes back-to-back to win its seventh championship.
Records: BGA 11-3; CPA 13-0.
(Contact John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)