It was the kind of ugly game that only a head coach, could appreciate but Loganville Christian Academy’s Andre King did just that of his team’s 27-17 high school football victory over Flint River Academy.
“I’ll never apologize for a win,” King told his troops after the game. “We lost the turnover battle again and we’ve got to get better in that area.”
LCA had the first possession but soon found itself with backs to the wall and Flint scored a safety to take a 2-0 lead barely 3 minutes into the game. The Wildcats scored once more in the quarter on a 28-yard run to take a 8-0 lead.
It was looking bleak for the LCA faithful until the first play of the second quarter when Cameron Lifsey scampered 44 yards for his first score of the night. A 2-point conversion attempt failed and LCA trailed 8-6.
Miscues, missed assignments and general confusion characterized most of the second quarter for LCA.
“We had a lot of kids playing in new positions and new formations,” King said, “and that’s just characteristic of football at a small school.”
Brian Borrero broke the game wide open at 3:16 in the quarter when he rambled 75 yards down the sideline for a score. The point-after was good by Kyle Cobb and the Lions took their first lead of the night at 13-8.
Fireworks erupted after halftime when Borrero threw a 75-yard strike to Dana Lucas Jr. to extend the LCA lead to 20-8. Just 5 minutes later, Lifsey got his second score of the night on a 21-yard run and with a good point after, the Lions were up 27-8.
The Wildcats narrowed the margin in the fourth quarter with another safety and a 2-yard touchdown run with under a minute to bring the score to the final 27-17.
Borrero had five carries for 100 yards and Lifsey went 97 yards on 11 carries.
Merritt Reece led all Lions tacklers.
LCA goes on the road next week, traveling to Americus to face Southlad Academy.