By Steven Kilpatrick

The Shelby County Reporter

Ellwood Christian Academy’s return to  11-man football did not go as smoothly as planned.

The Eagles faced a much larger and more experienced Kingwood Christian School team, who used their depth to cruise to a 41-12 win.

The game got off to a quick start as the Lions needed only three plays from scrimmage to get on the board with a 68-yd touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback Gavin Sumrall to Montez Hayes to take an early lead.

Not long after on Ellwood’s first play from scrimmage, Kingwood forced a fumble to  take over on the 27-yd line. Three plays later, after a few penalties,  Sumrall connected with Hayes again for a 31-yard touchdown to go up 14-0 early in the first quarter. Kingwood would go on to score on their next drive with another Sumrall pass, this time a 9-yard toss to  senior Charles Robinson.

After being forced to punt for the first time in the game, the Lion defense had to step up. Five plays into the Eagles drive, junior Dalton Sparks intercepted a pass and returned it 15-yards for another Lion touchdown.

The first half was a dominating performance on both sides of the ball for the Kingwood Lions. The defense held the Eagles to minus-35 total yards in the first half and went into the locker room up 33-0.

After halftime, the Eagles came out ready to fight back. The opening kickoff was returned 85-yards for a touchdown by Deriaun Glenn to get the Eagle’s first points of the game. Kingwood answered back with a 63-yard drive on their first possession of the second half.

Ellwood wasn’t ready to give up yet. Eagle running back Deriaun Green scored from 21-yards out to get six more points on the board. Fatigue began to set in for the Lions.

After being forced to punt on the rest of their drives in the game, the Lion defense closed out the game with their second safety to take the lead to 29. After fielding the kickoff, Kingwood went in to the victory formation to take their first win of the 2011 season 41-12.

“It was a sloppy win, and we’ve got a lot of things to work on, on both sides of the ball.” Kingwood Coach Bob Spurgeon had to say after the game,

“I thought we were a little bit better fundamentally, and we just need to work out a few kinks and get back to the basics on Monday.”

The Kingwood Lions finished the game with 256 total yards of offense and head on the road next week to take on PCA.