"Playing Our Game" Keeps Hebron Christian Unbeaten, Defeats Douglass And South Atlanta
In their second official Georgia High School Association flag football season, the Hebron Christian Academy Lions have gotten off to a solid start and on Tuesday, at 9-0, looked to remain unbeaten as they traveled to face the Douglass Astros and South Atlanta Hornets. The Astros, in their inaugural season, would take the first stab at taking down the Lions, but it would Hebron Christian striking first as they would cap their opening drive with a rushing touchdown from quarterback MJ James, as they would take a 6-0 lead.
On the ensuing possession, the Astros would put together a solid drive that would see them reach the red zone, but on a 4th and goal attempt, the Lions’ defense would come up with a stop, turning the ball over on downs back to Hebron Christian. Not to be outdone, the Douglass defense would come up with a turnover of their own thanks to a Damyria Gates interception of the James pass and she would return the ball to the Lions’ eight yard line before being downed. With the ball inside the red zone once again, the Astros would capitalize off the turnover as quarterback Cyalanthia Armalin would reach the end zone on a keeper as Douglass would take a 7-6 lead.
Down by one heading into the second half, the Lions would swing momentum their way as they would score 13 unanswered points, while settling in defensively as they made the necessary adjustments to slow down the Astros. James would rush for two more touchdowns in the half as Hebron Christian would go on to pick up the 19-7 win over Douglass. “Just come out playing our game,” was key in the Lions victory over the Astros head coach Chad Griffin said after the win. Griffin noted that his team did have issues early dealing with the speed of Douglass which resulted in them not getting to the Astros’ flags.
“They’re really good and they get down field and screen well so we had to kind of fight through that and do a better job pulling flags and we did that in the second half and got in a little bit more rhythm offensively getting the ball in the flats and just getting yards after catch,” Griffin said of the Lions’ adjustments at the half to help propel them to the win. They would take on South Atlanta after defeating Douglass and pick up a 18-12 win over the Hornets, improving to 11-0 on the season.
