Chattanooga Christian rolls past Grace Academy, 42-14

Thunder and lightning couldn't have struck more quickly than Chattanooga Christian's offense did against Grace Academy in a 42-14 nonregion win Friday night.

It was the Chargers' homecoming and they were charged up, as they bolted to a 35-0 lead by halftime. It was offense by committee as five players accounted for the first-half touchdowns.

Grace went for it on fourth down despite not having good field position in three of the tries but was 1-for-5 on fourth down and punted only once, consistently providing the Chargers' lightning-fast offense with good field position.

"We've had some tough injuries early, so we've got some guys that are just now kind of coming into their own, but we challenged these guys tonight just to play physical," CCS coach Mark Mariakis said. "That's been our theme all year long, just to learn to play physical and go after them.

"You try to take the hope away from teams early, so I thought our kids came out here with a purpose, and we were proud of everybody."

After a 47-0 loss last week to Red Bank, the CCS defense responded by giving up just 125 yards of total offense in the first half to the Class 1A Golden Eagles.

"They were challenged. They kind of got their feelings hurt last week," Mariakis said of his defenders. "The guys take a lot of pride on our defensive side of the ball.

"That's a good football team: Their quarterback's good, and they've been scoring a lot of points. So we challenged them just to try to shut them out, get around the football and make them earn every yard. I think we saw people flying around on the defensive side of the ball tonight."

Grace started the game with the ball and went three-and-out. The Golden Eagles' punt then was their only one of the first half.

On the Chargers' third play from scrimmage, Ian Gaines went nearly untouched on a 44-yard touchdown run for an early 7-0 lead.

The Golden Eagles' second possession gave CCS a scare. Senior quarterback Jared Thompson escaped a sack on third down and turned it into a first, preventing another three-and-out. After back-to-back penalties, Thompson completed a 16-yard pass on third down to give the Chargers a chance on fourth-and-5. A 6-yard slant gave the Eagles another first, and they eventually made it inside the Chargers' 20-yard line.

On fourth-and-4, though, Thompson kept on the read option but was stopped 1 yard short.

CCS answered almost immediately as senior quarterback Matthew Mercer connected with senior tight end Nick Fulmer for a 54-yard completion. One play later, Justin Wheeler ran into the end zone from 31 yards out make it 14-0.

"We've got some kids with some better-than-average speed. I don't think we've learned how to use it yet," Mariakis said. "So we challenged them again to use their speed that they have. We challenged the linemen to stay on blocks and just give us a crease. I thought we did that well.

"I thought Matthew Mercer made some good throws (and) we made some good catches. It was a great first half for us, and then we just finished the ballgame out."

Grace's sophomore quarterback Cade Tinsley scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter and looked good doing it as both teams sat their starters.

Contact Shakeem Holloway at sports@timesfreepress.com

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