What started out with a bang ended with a thud for the Winona Christian Stars on Friday night.
The Stars had trouble stopping a talented Indianola team as the Colonels ran up 522 yards of total offense and took a 49-34 win in a key District 2-3A contest.
It was the first loss of the season for the Stars, who fall to 4-1 while Indianola improves to 3-2 on the year.
For veteran coach Junior Graham, the reason for the outcome was a simple one.
“They were just better than us,” Graham said. “We had a heck of a first quarter and neither one could stop the other one. We just couldn’t answer their scores in the second quarter. But I thought we played a lot better in the second half and forced some turnovers and some punts. They just clicked on offense in the first half and we missed a lot of tackles.”
The Stars opened the game with a big play as Blake Cooper received the opening kickoff and raced 80 yards for a touchdown. The PAT failed and Winona led 6-0 early in the first.
But Indianola answered right back as they marched down the field and scored on an 8-yard run. The PAT was good and the Colonels led 7-6.
The Stars answered the score with an impressive drive that culminated with John White hitting Dalton Wiggins on a 17-yard touchdown pass. White ran in the two-point conversion and Winona led 14-7.
But again the Colonels marched down the field and scored on a 1-yard run. The PAT failed and Winona held a 14-13 lead.
The Stars continued with the fast pace in the first quarter as Cooper got free on a 46-yard run. The try for two failed and Winona held a 20-13 lead.
But it was all Colonels from there. Indianola tied the game back up as they hit a 37-yard touchdown pass and booted the PAT to make it 20-20 at the end of the first quarter.
The Colonels then scored three more times in the second quarter on a 2-yard run and touchdown passes of 43 and 6 yards as they led 41-20 at the half.
“We just failed to answer in that second quarter, and I’ll take responsibility for that,” Graham said. “I tried to slow the game down in the second quarter. I felt like we were gassed and it came back to bite me. We just never answered them and couldn’t stop them. They were able to run when they wanted to and passes when they wanted to. They are the most diversified team that we will face all year.”
The Stars did win the second half as they came out in the third and scored on a 2-yard run by Hayden Self. White ran in the two-point conversion and Winona cut the lead to 41-28.
“We had a chance to cut it to one score there in the second half that could have made it interesting,” Graham said. “But we had two scores called back that really hurt us. That’s been one of our problems, sustaining drives and penalties. We’ve got to get better at both of those.”
The Colonels extended the lead to 49-28 as they scored on a 34-yard pass and hit the two-point conversion in the fourth.
Winona’s last score came on an 80-yard run by Cooper in the fourth for the final margin.
“We knew that we didn’t match up real well with them with their size up front,” Graham said. “I would proud of our kids in the fact that they were down 41-20 at the half and I thought we battled them the whole second half and never quit. We got after them pretty good, I thought.”
The Stars had 205 yards rushing 30 carries and White was 15-of-31 passing for 149 yards for 354 yards of total offense. Cooper led the way with 182 yards on 17 carries while Wiggins had eight catches for 61 yards.
Self led the defense with a season-high 15 tackles while Bradley Pinkard had nine stops. Indianola had 522 yards of total offense with 374 rushing and 148 passing and four TDs.
“I thought we functioned pretty well out the empty set in the second half,” Graham said. “We stayed on the field for 61 snaps on offense and that’s the most we have had all year. We had 354 yards of offense against a really good football team and two long plays called back that would have put us well over 400 yards. We just couldn’t stop the running back, he ran it 36 times and had more than 200 yards rushing.”
Winona Christian will celebrate homecoming this week as they host Newton County Academy.
The Generals are 0-5 on the season and coming off a 59-0 loss to top-ranked Carroll Academy.
“It’s homecoming week here which means it’s miserable here to be an adult,” Graham said. “I tell the kids all the time that we need to have a Eupora homecoming where they have a parade and a queen and that’s it. Maybe it won’t be too bad and we can focus on Newton and what we need to do on Friday night.”
Last year, Winona won 38-13.
