Ben’s Ford Christian School had a tough first quarter, trailing 26-0 before scoring 14 unanswered points, in a 32-14 loss to Sylva-Bay Academy to close out the regular season in a District 3AA road game.
“It was a tough start,” Ben’s Ford coach Dean King said. “We had a blocked punt that led to a score, and an interception for a pick-six. We allowed a big play on defense. It was something we had seen, but we made a bad read. That’s three touchdowns in the first quarter.
“It was (26-0) after the first quarter. If we could have played the first quarter like we did the last three, we would’ve had a chance, but you can’t go back. We won the second quarter 14-0 and we allowed one touchdown in the last three quarters. I am proud the kids didn’t quit after the first quarter. They kept fighting and they’ve done that all year.”
The Eagles scored on a touchdown on a 50-yard pass from Tyler Winstead to Kameron Underwood and a 5-yard run by Gage Tervalon. Winstead and Underwood connected for a two-point conversion.
The Eagles had six seniors this year in Tervalon, Underwood, Adam Smith, Jacob Seal, Jacob Mitchell and Tyrik Bickham.
“You can’t really judge off our record and you can’t really judge off of our season, but we were in games,” King said. “There were only two games we were not (competitive) in. It was the fourth quarter that hurt us in a lot of games. When I took over, I talked to these seniors about that we were going to have to change the mindset. It started with the seniors. Instead of expecting to lose, they expected to win.
“Even if we lost a game, they would be back fighting the next week looking to win that game. That’s big on these seniors. The future of Ben’s Ford football looks bright and we’ll keep getting better each year and it starts with these seniors.”
Ben’s Ford finished the season with a 2-7 overall record and 0-3 record in district.