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The Evangel Christian Lightning were stifled by the No. 1 team in the AISA, the Chambers Academy Rebels, in their first shutout loss in over seven years. (For the Reporter/Reagan Hopper)

By CHRIS MEGGINSON | Special to the Reporter

LAFAYETTE – Evangel Christian School was held to 76 yards of offense Friday night, Oct. 4 in a 39-0 road loss at Chambers Academy. It is the final 11-man football game of the season for the predominantly 8-man program.

The shutout loss is the first for Evangel since August 2017.

“We played as hard as we could, but they wore us down,” Evangel head coach Tim Smith said. “Chambers is the best team we have seen in several years. They were so good up front. We had no answer. We want to play better teams so we can be better, and we’ve challenged our kids this year with some of the 11-man teams we’ve played.”

The Rebels (6-1), ranked No. 1 in AISA, held Kemp Swords to 46 yards on 6-for-12 passing. Max Watson led the Lightning’s ground game with 22 yards on five carries.

Paul Dixon forced a fumble on Chambers’ first drive, recovered by Reed Castleberry. However, that may have been the biggest play of the game for the Lightning. After an ECS fake punt failed, Eli Wharton went 29 yards for the first Chambers touchdown, 6-0.

The Rebels scored four touchdowns for 24 points in the second quarter. Luke Tarver scored from 35 and 10 yards out to make it a 21-0 game. A pick-six by Colton Fuller and a 20-yard touchdown pass from Landon Hand to TJ Daniel made it 32-0 at the half.

Jacob Norgard scored in the fourth quarter to add the last touchdown of the night.

Ethan Stallings and Nick Cloud led the defense with six tackles apiece, while Eli Black had five and Dixon had four.

Evangel (6-2) is scheduled to travel to Southern Christian in Opelika on Friday, Oct. 11.

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