By: Christopher Smith

Florala High School’s head football coach Scott Mason said that missing their starting quarterback and an injury to the starting running back the first drive of the game, are two reasons for the Wildcat’s big loss against Cottage Hill Christian Academy, 42-14.

Florala got the ball moving the first drive of the game, converting on two fourth downs and making it to the Cottage Hill 16 yard line, but a second down run, Vinson Flowers, the Wildcat’s starting running back, was injured and did not return for the rest of the game.

After an incomplete pass and coming up short on fourth down, the Warriors took the ball on the 15-yard line.

The Warriors struck first blood on a 16-yard pass to the end zone after moving the ball down the field. After making the extra point, it was 7-0, Cottage Hill, with three minutes and six seconds left in the first quarter.

After going back and forth for the entire second quarter, the Wildcats seized an opportunity to score.

With one minute and 11 seconds in the half, Rashaad Coleman ran a quarterback sneak on fourth down into the end zone to make it, 7-7, but the Warriors did not take long to answer right back.

The Wildcats kicked off and the Warrior’s kick returner ran it all the way back for a touchdown with 43 seconds left in the half, making it 14-7, Cottage Hill.

After exchanging punts, the Warriors struck again by using a reverse trick play to get the ball down to the Florala 28 yard line with a receiver wide open down field to make the score 21-7, Cottage Hill, with 7:51 left in the third quarter.

In the sixth minute of the third quarter, the Warriors took advantage of an interception and on the first play of the drive, scored another touchdown to make it 28-7 with five minutes and 55 seconds left in the third.

The Wildcats were hoping to get on the board again by making it to the Cottage Hill 18 yard line, but the Warriors intercepted a pass in the end zone intended for Logan West. Soon after, West got his revenge.

Cottage Hill was moving the ball down the field fast, but threw an interception to West with 2:27 left in the third. Seconds after that interception, Coleman threw another interception. The Warriors capitalized on the turnover making the score 35-7, with one minute and 43 seconds left in the third quarter.

The last touchdown from Cottage Hill came in the seventh minute of the fourth quarter when their wide receiver ran across the field from the Florala’s 35 yard line, making the score 42-7 with six minutes and 51 seconds left.

Florala did not give up easily, Leroy Mitchell ran 80 yards to score the Wildcats second touchdown of the night with one minute and 14 seconds left in the game, making the score 42-14.

“We knew that this was going to be a hard fought game,” Mason said. “We were looking forward to the duel and that is what we got.”

Mason said that the biggest problems with Friday night was not having their starting quarterback Jacob Hammac and losing Flowers the first drive of the game.

“I mean when you don’t have the number one quarterback in the Southeast anymore then it’s going to be tough,” Mason said. “Then we also lost our starting running back the first drive and that hurt us pretty badly.”

Hammac was injured before last week’s game and is expected to miss a few weeks of play.

Despite the loss, Mason said that he is proud of how the team played.

“I mean they are a very good 3A team,” Mason said. “I am very proud of how the boys played and I think we are just learning how to fight when we play games like this. We are getting better.”

The Wildcats take the field again next Friday night at 7 p.m., against Georgiana.