The Winona Christian Stars opened the regular season on Friday night.
It wasn’t the start that coach Ken Chandler had hoped for as Carroll Academy took a 42-6 win over the Stars in the regular-season opener for both teams.
The Stars got a first-hand look at Carroll’s talented group of skill players, who racked up 405 yard of total offense.
“We knew how good they were with their skill guys,” WCS coach Ken Chandler said. “We missed a lot of tackles and played too high with our pad level. Everybody is playing high, the line is high, we are tackling high. We are not a good tackling team right now. But there were some post. We moved the ball OK but had three turnovers. We let them get some good returns and that gave the a few short fields.”
Winona got the ball to start the game and immediately forced a punt. The Rebels then went 62 yards in nine plays as Brennan Blaylock threw a 16-yard touchdown pas to Maddox Carpenter on fourth down with 7:34 left in the first quarter. Blaylock booted the PAT and Carroll led 7-0, a score that held through the end of the first quarter.
In the second quarter, Carroll got rolling again and went 64 yards in five plays. After a 28-yard gainer by Mathis Beck, Blaylock called his own number and scored on a 20-yard touchdown run with 9:21 left in the second quarter. Blaylock booted the PAT and Carroll led 14-0.
The Carroll defense got another stop and got a short field this time, starting at the Winona 32. The Rebels then capped off the drive as Mathis Beck scored on a 6-yard touchdown run with 4:34 left in the first half. Beck ran in the two-point conversion and Carroll held a 22-0 lead.
Winona scored its only touchdown before the end of the half as Brannon Hill hit Collin Parkinson on a short TD pass. The PAT and Carroll led 22-6 at the half.
“Their brand of football is my brand of football but I haven’t gotten my kids to that yet,” Chandler said. “They are physical and tough. We took some shots and knew that was coming. We didn’t take care of the football and do some little things here and there. We gave them a lot of short fields and that’s hard to overcome. They are a really good football team and we will only see a few more teams of their caliber this year.”
Carroll punted on its first possession of the second half and on its second possession drove down inside the Winona 10 before turning the ball over on downs. But Winona gave the ball right back on an interception by Brennan Blaylock. Lofton Holly then scored on the next play with 7:01 left in the third. The PAT attempt failed and Carroll led 28-6.
The Rebels tacked on two more scores as Maddox Carpenter scored on an 18-yard run in the third and Mathis Beck on a 65-yard run in the fourth for the final margin of 42-6.
Carroll had 356 yards rushing and 49 passing for 405 total yards. Winona had 192 yards of total offense with 112 rushing and 80 passing. Hill was 6-of-13 for 80 yards while Trace Carpenter had three catches for 75 yards. Jake Ware had 21 carries for 70 yards rushing while Hill had seven carries for 33 yards. Ware also had 96 yards on returns.
Parkinson and Sam Thompson led the WCS defense with four solo tackles and two assists while Will Irwin had a sack.
This week’s game
Winona Christian will travel to French Camp to take on the Panthers. The two teams did not play last year because the Panthers were in a COVID shutdown.
French Camp went 5-7 last year lost in the first round of the Class 12A payoffs to Taylorsville.
“We don’t have any film on them,” Chandler said. “I have been friends with Coach (Nathan) Wright for a long time. They haven’t don’t anything as far as a preseason is concerned. I know he’s an even front guys and he likes to run the football. Probably the most important thing is we will work on us and fix our mistakes. Our defensive line was high and we tackled too high. This week will be as much about us as it is working on French Camp.”
