Lions rally in second half to win on the road

Published 2:51 am Saturday, September 20, 2014

A week after a dominating start-to-finish performance, a strong second half was enough to push Christian Heritage School’s football team to the .500 mark with one game remaining before sub-region play.

And junior Matt Cook, a two-way standout, figured largely in the Lions’ comeback from start to finish Friday night in Roswell.

Cook, who was sidelined by stomach illness much of the first half, had a 98-yard touchdown run for Christian Heritage’s first points of the night and sacked Fellowship Christian’s quarterback to finish off a 13-12 win for the Lions.

Christian Heritage (2-2), which beat visiting Gordon Lee 33-0 last week, hosts Mount Pisgah Christian next week before starting Sub-region 6A-A play against Trion on Oct. 3.

Fellowship Christian (1-3) led 12-0 at halftime after a pair of field goals in the first quarter and a touchdown run in the second quarter.

“It really was a tale of two halves,” Christian Heritage coach Preston Poag said. “We couldn’t do hardly anything right offensively in the first half, but our defense bowed their neck because it should have been worse than 12-0 with all of the mistakes we were making on offense. But we finally started making plays in the second half.”

Cook’s long scoring run came with 10 seconds remaining in the third quarter, and Heath Hardaway’s extra point cut the deficit to 12-7 entering the final period. The Lions went ahead 13-12 on a short touchdown run by Ahmaad Tanner with 3:28 to play — the run for two points failed — to cap a drive kept alive when quarterback Tyson Cooper picked up a crucial first down.

“We needed some big plays at the end, and on the last drive we converted two or three fourth downs,” Poag said. “They didn’t quit and kept fighting, and it was good to see.”

Christian Heritage forced Fellowship Christian to turn the ball over on downs with 1:55 to play but couldn’t pick up a first down and had to punt. The Paladins moved the ball to midfield, but Cook’s sack ended the desperation drive.