Winona Christian football coach Junior Graham will be the first to admit that his Stars didn’t play their best game against Park Place on Friday night.
But they played with plenty of effort and that was enough to take a 28-20 win over Park Place.
With the win, the Stars are now 4-1 on the season and will attempt to take control of District 1-AA as they take on Marshall.
The Stars needed all four quarters to win the game against an athletic Park Place team.
“”We didn’t play very well, but we played hard,” Graham said. “We made one mental mistake after another. We led at halftime and had the ball to start the second half but had nine second-half penalties and stayed behind the chains and kept them on the field on offense.”
After a season-opening loss to French Camp, Graham said the Stars played a similar game against Central Holmes for their first win.
“We have had two games where we didn’t play very well and found a way to win,” Graham said. “Friday night was the same thing. We played hard but didn’t play real smart but still found a way to win. Our effort paid huge dividends for us on Friday night.”
After a scoreless first quarter, the Star had three second-quarter scores as Latham Hill started the scoring with a 1-yard run. The try for two failed and the Stars led 6-0.
The second score came on a 3-yard run by Thomas Costilow and the two-point conversion by Costilow made the score 14-0.
Choyce Diffey scored the last points of the quarter on a 54-yard pass from Hill to give Winona Christian a 20-7 lead at the half.
"Park Place isn’t bad,” Graham said. “They are big up front and their skill guys can run. Their field is really unique. It’s probably the tightest sidelines I have ever been on. The fans could literally reach out and touch you. It was different.”
Park Place got back in the game in the second half as they scored on a 5-yard touchdown run to cut the leads to 20-14. The Crusaders then tied the game on a 6-yard touchdown pass but a blocked PAT kept the game tied.
“I was proud of our special teams,” Graham said. “We had a blocked extra point and returned a kick for a touchdown to go up by eight. They did a good job of hemming up their kick returners. And we punted the ball away from their guys and flipped the field on them several times. It was probably the best special teams game we have played so far.”
Dalton Wiggins answered the score as he returned the ensuing kickoff 65 yards for a touchdown. Corley Goss ran in the two-point conversion for the final margin.
Winona had 186 yards rushing and 83 passing for 269 yards of total offense while Park Place had 141 yards rushing and 98 passing for 239 yards of total offense.
Blake Marlow led the Stars in rushing with 74 yards on eight carries while Diffey had two catches for 67 yards. Hill was 4-of-7 passing for 83 yards.
Ben Pinkard led the defense with 16 tackles while Holland Ingram had 14 tackles. Colby Marlow and Hayden Self each had 12 tackles apiece.
“We had kids going to the football and hustling,” Graham said. “We didn’t play bad, Park Place made some of the biggest heave-ho plays I’ve ever seen and would come down with the ball. We gave up two big runs because we didn’t fit right and opened up a seam but other than that, they didn’t have anything. We got a lot of kids to the football.”
The Stars will hit the road for the biggest game of the season so far as they travel to Marshall. The Patriots are 3-2 on the year with wins over Lee (35-20), Falkner (48-22) and Kirk (34-14). The have losses to West Memphis Christian (32-14) and Central Holmes (64-34) last week.
“It’s a big division game,” Graham said. “If we could find some way to win this one, we would be 3-0 and have one more division game with Carroll. But we are polar opposites. They are speed oriented and spread you out and we like to run the ball right at you. They do a good job of spreading you out. I don’t know if we match up very well with their skill people but I think we have some good matchups in the trenches. We will have our hands full, no doubt.”
Last year, Marshall beat Winona Christian 21-14.
