Winona Christian football coach Ken Chandler went into last Friday’s game with North Delta thinking his team had a chance at another win.
For a half, it looked like Chandler was thinking right. But the Green Wave got rolling with 28 second-half points to pull away and take a 34-20 win over the Stars.
The Stars fall to 4-5 on the season and will finish the regular season with Class 3A favorite Canton.
On Friday night, the Stars led early but couldn’t hold on in the second half.
“It was 14-6 at the half and they just came out in the second half and had their way with us,” Chandler said. “We played well in the first half and could have led by more. We had a few fourth downs we didn’t convert and missed on a couple of passes. We just didn’t hit but were really close. And then they came out in the second half and had their way with us. They are big and strong and ran it right at us. We are really young and they picked a night where they payed really good.”
The Stars got an early break when North Delta fumbled at the 6. Brannon Hill then scored on a 3-yard run. The PAT failed and Winona Christian led 6-0.
Winona added a 35-yard touchdown pass from Hill to Jake Ware for their second score. Hill then hit Reese Johnson on the two-point conversion and the Stars led 14-6 at the half.
North Delta got the ball to start the second half and marched down the field and scored. After a Winona Christian punt, they repeated the previous drive and scored again to take a 20-14 lead.
“We are a growing team and not quite where we want to be,” Chandler said. “We have to improve stopping the run and that has been a thorn in our side all year. We had three fourth-down conversions we didn’t make. If we make those, that would have put us in a better place and the game could have looked a little different. I do think we have gotten better on special teams. Kickoff has gotten better and the punt team has gotten better and is covering better there.”
The Stars then failed on a fourth and short at the North Delta 10 and the Green Wave responded with another scoring drive to extend the lead to 28-14.
Winona Christian then scored its last touchdown of the night as Colin Parkinson found the end zone on a 54-yard run. The try for two failed and North Delta led 28-20.
The Green Wave added a late score with a minute left in the game for the final margin of 34-20.
“I was extremely pleased with the effort of our skill players,” Chandler said. “I look up one minute and Collin is limping around and then a few minutes later, he is scoring on a reverse. Jake Ware has a sprained AC and he continues to be our guy on offense. Brannon Hill is banged up with an ankle injury. But they keep on fighting and I’m proud of those guys.”
The Stars had 208 yards rushing and 138 yards passing for 346 yards of total offense. Ware led the Stars again with 141 yards rushing on 26 carries and had three catches on 47 yards. Parkinson had three carries for 58 yards and six catches for 71 yards. Hill was 11-of-24 passing for 138 yards as well.
On defense, Bryce Harville had 10 tackles with two fumble recoveries and one tackle for loss. Parkinson had nine tackles and forced a fumble.
