By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Sports Editor 

TUSCALOOSA – After battling to a 21-16 deficit in the early going, Montevallo struggled to stop American Christian the rest of the night, as the Patriots went on to outscore Montevallo 63-14 the rest of the way to pick up an 84-30 victory on Friday, Sept. 20.

Heading into the matchup, both teams were undefeated in region play with Montevallo 3-1 overall and 1-0 in region play and American Christian was 3-0 and 1-0 in region play, while they were both averaging more than 40 points per game.

Last year, the game featured a combined 124 points with the Patriots eventually picking up a 74-50 victory with Montevallo keeping its starters in and fighting until the end.

This time around, American Christian decided not to leave any doubt and continued to pour on the points throwing the ball even up 78-24 in the final quarter.

With the Bulldogs also having an explosive offense, the Patriots made it clear they didn’t want Montevallo attempting to pull off a comeback.

Montevallo, however, still never gave up and despite falling behind 78-16, the Bulldogs still fought and scored a final touchdown in the fourth quarter on a Malik Inabinette 61-yard touchdown pass to Jamarius Carter.

That duo has been dangerous all season, and showed even in a major deficit, they were still playing hard for the team.

That made the score 78-24, but American Christian answered with six minutes left on a 28-yard touchdown pass to create the 84-24 final score.

Early in the game, American Christian proved its offense would be hard to stop with 13 quick points to take a 13-0 lead.

Montevallo was able to answer with its first touchdown of the night behind a 22-yard touchdown pass from Inabinette to Carter.

The Patriots responded to their first sign of adversity with a 42-yard touchdown run to go back up by two scores.

All of a sudden, it looked as if the game was set for the back-and-forth affair that was expected when Montevallo answered again on a 29-yard touchdown pass from Inabinette to Kial Cottingham to make the score 21-16.

From that point forward, however, it was all American Christian. The Patriots went on to score 29 unanswered points the remainder of the first half to take a 50-16 halftime lead and continued to pour it on in the second half to pull away for the victory.

Inabinette finished the game 20-for-37 with 345 yards and three touchdowns through the air. Cottingham finished the night with seven catches for 157 yards and one touchdown, while Carter posted two touchdowns and 110 yards on six receptions.

Montevallo is now 3-2 overall and 1-1 in region play with a bye week set for next Friday. The Bulldogs will return to action on Oct. 4 with a home game against West Blocton, which will mark the first of four consecutive region games.