By JOSH ETHRIDGE/For the Reporter

ALABASTER — The Hope Christian Eagles hosted the Lighthouse Homeschool Warriors in high school football action Oct. 17, in their last regular season game. They walked away with a 44-26 victory.

The Hope defense took the field first and stopped the Warriors from converting a first down. After only managing to gain one yard on the drive Lighthouse was forced to punt the ball.

Return man Cannon Fuqua muffed the punt but he was able to recover his own fumble. After avoiding disaster, the Eagles scored on their first play from scrimmage on a 52-yard pass and catch from Dillon Thompson to Juan Cuellar. Following a failed two-point conversion, Hope took a 6-0 lead.

The Eagle offense kept rolling on their next possession. It took only three plays to find the end zone again. Quarterback Dillon Thompson was responsible for the score on a 19-yard run. Fuqua followed the touchdown with a successful two-point conversion, on a quarterback keeper play. The Eagles led 14-0 with 6:31 left in the first quarter.

Lighthouse’s offensive struggles continued, following the Hope score, as they suffered their second three-and-out of the game.

Hope got on the board again on their third possession, on another short scoring drive. Thompson connected with Fuqua on a 44-yard pass play and Hope took a 20-point lead over the visiting Warriors.

The Eagles finished the first quarter with another touchdown catch by Fuqua, this time from 28-yards out.

The Warriors’ first points came midway through the first quarter on a 40-yard run by receiver Clay Ferrill. For the remainder of the contest Lighthouse was able to find some success on offense, but their comeback came up short, as the Eagles cruised to a 44-26 win.

“I thought we did fine, we started substituting in the first quarter, and we knew from the onset we had this game in control,” said Hope head coach Tony Nafe. “We needed to evaluate some of the young talent and we saw a lot of good things.”

Hope will resume play Oct. 31 as they face Central Christian in the ACSC semifinals.