Winona Christian football Coach Ken Chandler said before the season that Jake Ware would be a big part of the Stars offense this season.
That was certainly the case on Friday night as Ware had 297 yards of total offense and propelled the Stars to a 35-28 win over French Camp.
French Camp falls to 0-1 on the season and will host Eupora on Friday night. Winona Christian improves to 1-1 on the season.
Winona Christian head coach Ken Chandler was pleased to get the first win of the season.
“Overall, I thought we were much improved from week 1 to week 2,” Chandler said. “They were big strong kids and were in the right places. I thought our special teams were much better. We had zero turnovers and that was a big thing for us this week. They had the big quarterback and the big running back that gave us problems. They have two or three kids that can go but I thought they ran out of gas and Jake (Ware) was able to make some big plays.”
The Stars got on the board first with a 2-yard run by Jake Ware but missed the PAT to take a 6-0 lead.
The Panthers responded with a score as Silas Hodge scored on a 7-yard run. Reese Churchill booted the PAT and French Camp led 7-6 midway through the first quarter.
The Stars responded with an 81-yard kickoff return by Collin Parkinson. The try for two failed and Winona Christian led 12-7.
The Panthers took the lead back in the second period as Ethan Wright scored on a 19-yard run. Churchill hit the PAT and French Camp led 14-12.
Before the half, the Stars got a big play as Jake Ware hit Reese Johnson on a halfback pass. Ware then scored on a. 25-yard run to give Winona the lead back. The Stars converted the two-point conversion and the Stars led 20-14 at the half.
In the third quarter, the Stars put some distance between them and the Panthers as they scored on a 52-yard pass from Brannon Hill to Ware. After stopping the Panthers, ware scored on a 54-yard run as the Stars led 35-14.
The Panthers fought back and made a game out of it as Ethan Wright scored on a 6-yard run. The PAT failed and Winona Christian led 35-20.
After getting a stop on defense, Winona Christian added another score as Ethan Wright scored on a 20-yard run. Logan Miller hauled in a pass from Wright for the two-point conversion to cut the score to 35-28.
French Camp had 301 yards rushing and 20 passing for 321 yards of total offense.
Hodge had a big night with 165 yards on 15 carries while Ethan Wright had 116 yards on 17 carries and three TDs.
Hodge and Wright also led the defensive effort as well. Hodge had 14 tackles while Ethan Wright had 13 stops.
On offense, the Stars had 252 yards rushing and 86 yards passing for 335 yards of total offense. Ware had a monster game with 233 yards rushing on 33 carries and four catches for 64 yards. Hill was 7-of-12 passing for 86 yards and one TD.
“That was the thing, where he went, we went,” Chandler said. “The rest of the team didn’t have 30 yards. But part of that is we were dropping too many passes. We tried to get other kids the ball and they had chances to make big plays but just dropped them. Brannon was 7-of-12 passing and four of those incompletions were drops. We’ve got to do better catching the ball out on the perimeter.”
This week’s game
The Stars will look to get above the .500 mark as they take on Oak Hill this week. The Raiders are 1-1 on the season as well with a 28-14 loss to East Rankin and a 37-0 win over Benton.
