By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Sports Editor

Cornerstone 13 Bessemer Academy 56

Cornerstone picked up a solid 45-20 win in week one of the season at Sparta Academy, but week two featured a major leap forward in level of competition as the AISAs No. 2 team Bessemer Academy traveled to Columbiana on Thursday, Aug. 24. Bessemer showed why they are so highly regarded this season by pulling off a 56-13 win on the road.

“We lost, but our guys played hard and never quit, which they easily could have in that game,” head coach James Lee said.

Rhett Garrett still had a nice game at quarterback throwing for 230 yards. Jake Blankenship also came in and had a touchdown pass to Ben Perryman. Jacob Foster led all receivers with 120 yards, while Tanner Falkner added four receptions for 40 yards. At 1-1 they’ll host Hope this Friday night.

Coosa Valley 0 Chambers Academy 45

Similar to Cornerstone, Coosa Valley was squaring off against a top 10 team of its own on Friday, Aug. 25. Differently, however, the Rebels were on the road and looking to avoid an 0-2 start.

It wasn’t meant to be as the Rebels offense struggled for the second week in a row and failed to score falling 45-0 to the No. 7 team in the AISA preseason rankings.

Kingwood 14 Springwood 48

Early in the season, Kingwood has had some concern defensively starting with a 47-8 loss in week one to No. 9 Pike Liberal. In week two it didn’t get much better as the Lions gave up one more point than the previous week to fall 48-14 at Springwood.

Kingwood fell to 0-2 on the season with the loss and now has one more road game before their first home game on Sept. 8. While next week’s road game is just down the road at Evangel Alabaster, it’ll be another tough matchup for the defense.

Hope 14 Edgewood Academy 47

After their 88-point debut a week ago, Hope was hoping for similar offensive success against their first 11-man opponent of the season, but the step up a league proved to be too much as they fell 47-14 at home to Edgewood Academy.

Now they’ll look to bounce back on Friday night in what should be a good matchup of 1-1 teams between the Hope and Cornerstone. While it marks another AISA game for the ACSC Eagles, it should be a better contest than this week’s game.