By By George L. Jones
For a few minutes, it looked like Meadowview Christian’s offense might have done a lot more damage Friday night.
The Trojans scored on their first three possessions and had little trouble in their first home game in a month. They beat Escambia Academy 46-0 at Wasden Field.
Less than three minutes into the game, Meadowview (4-4) had a lead. With about five and a half minutes left in the quarter, it was 21-0.
That was largely due to J.R. Lowe, who was literally everywhere on the field. He took a handoff and scored an 11-yard touchdown to open things up. He also scored from 23 yards out on a jailbreak screen.
Sandwiched in between Lowe’s touchdowns, Justin Freine took an option pitch from quarterback Randal Hamilton and scored on an 18-yard run.
Despite the high scoring, Meadowview wasn’t a picture of efficiency all night.
They committed five penalties in the first half, including a block in the back that wiped out a 54-yard touchdown run by Austin Cook. They also lost two fumbles.
Escambia quarterback Jeff Price had chances to hurt Meadowview downfield, but overthrown passes and pressure from Meadowview’s front seven mitigated the Cougars’ passing attack.
Price finished the game completing 1-of-12 passes for 12 yards.
Head coach Heath Gibson said the Cougars were not able to execute plays through the air like he had hoped.
The Trojans have had trouble stopping people all season, but some big plays helped them out Friday.
Perhaps the biggest play of the game was a punt attempt on Escambia’s second possession.
Davis Jones went a step further than blocking the kick. He tackled Nick Mills before he had the chance to get the ball on his foot.
Randal Hamilton picked off a pass on the first possession for the Cougars (0-8).
Gibson said the first turnover took the fighting mentality our out of the Cougars.
Both defensive plays by Hamilton and Jones led to Meadowview touchdowns.
Early in the second quarter, Jones saw a hole in the Escambia defense and ran to daylight, scoring on a 59-yard play that took the air out of the Cougars’ tires.
On the first play of the ensuing possession, Raymond Eggert recovered a Braxton Chastang fumble and returned it 40 yards to the Escambia 1-yard line.
Chastang finished with three carries for 55-yards.
Kawetta Coon led the Cougars with nine carries for 71 yards.
Stone Jackson scored the first of his two touchdowns in the game with a run on the next play, making it a 34-0 ball game after a missed extra point.
Jackson led the Trojans in rushing in the second half with 43 yards on five carries. He scored another touchdown with 7:08 left to push the lead to 40-0.
Zach Sanders punched the game’s final score across on a 2-yard run with 1:53 left to play.
After losing three of their last four, this was a welcome change of pace for the Trojans.
It also made things easier for coach Rick Jackson, who was confined to the press box after nearly contracting pneumonia this week.
Gibson said the Cougars will work work extra hard this week for Monroe Academy.