The Winona Christian Stars, coached by former Winston coach, Junior Graham, captured a 32-13 victory last Friday night over the Winston Patriots in a game that Coach Graham called, a complete victory.
With costly turnovers hurting the Patriots, the Stars capitalized on a fumble and two interceptions in putting touchdowns on the board.
With Winona opening with possession, both teams faced punting situations.
The Stars then got their first points after a fumbled Winston punt at the Winston 3 yard line to go up 7-0. Winston then answered back with Brylee Wall connected with Johnson Wells in the corner of the end zone for a 20 yard TO pass.
The try for 2 run, failed and the Stars held on to a 7-6 lead with 7:25 remaining before halftime. Winona instantly struck back with a 1 yard scoring run. The PAT failed and the Stars increased their lead to 13-6 with 2:25 before intermission.
After Winston was stopped on a 4th down attempt at midfield, Winona tried to add more points on a Hail Mary pass, but Cage Palmer pulled down the interception in the end zone to stop the drive and send both teams into the locker room with the Stars on top 13-6. As the Patriots took possession to start the second half, their first 2 possessions ended in punts, while the Winona first 2 possessions ended with a strong Winston defensive stand on 4th down attempts.
Winston then suffered an interception that set up a Winona score as they increased their lead to 19-6 to end all third quarter scoring.
The Patriot defense then held the Stars on their third 4th down attempt at the Winston 20 yard line with 8:44 left in the game. After a penalty for roughing the punter, Winston faced good field position, but a costly pick 6 interception added more points for the Stars as they saw their lead increase to 26-6 with 6:21 left in the game.
The Patriots continued to shoot themselves in the foot after a deflected pass went in the hands of the Stars at the Winston 29 yard line. But the stingy defense of the Patriots denied first down yardage and Winston took over on downs at their own 30 yard line. After moving the bailout near mid field, Wall found Cage Palmer open down the sidelines for a 45 yard TO pass. Wall's PAT kick then cut the Stars lead to 26-13 with 3;03 left in the game. Winona did not take long to build their lead back as they quickly answered with a 47 yard run to end all scoring a seal their 32-16 victory.
As the Stars improved to 2-0, the Patriots fell to 0-2. Offensively, the rush ing game was led by Jackson Joiner with 32 yards, followed by J.J. Beamon with 11 yards. The passing game saw Brylee Wall pass for 170 yard on 14 completions and 2 touchdowns, while suffering 3 interceptions.
His leading receivers were Johnson Wells with 59 yards and a touchdown, and Cage Palmer with 55 yards and a touchdown. Jackson Joiner finished with 19 receiving yards. The leading tackle list saw Curry Black with 9 stops, J.J. Beamon with 7, Michael Majors with 6, and Tanner Boater and Johnson Wells each with 5.
Cage Palmer was credited with an interception. So as the Patriots will finally play their first game with all injured players returning, it will come at no better time as they trave l this week to take on East Rankin in Pelahatchie. Game time is set for 7:00.
Pats look to pick up first win of
season Friday night
By Robbie Faulk
Winston County Journal
Things got better for the Winston Academy Patriots on Friday night against Winona Christian but it wasn’t good enough for the win.
A week after getting shutout by Leake Academy 43-0, the Patriots got a couple of shots in against Winona but it was a game that they were outmatched in yet again in the 32-13 loss. There were some good things like young quarterback Brylee Wall throwing for 170 yards but the three interceptions he had proved costly as the Stars capitalized on the turnovers with touchdowns.
It has the Patriots sitting at 0-2 at the early part of the season and now with seven-straight losses continuing from last season. The program has fallen on hard times in recent years and is still searching for a winning season for the first time in nearly a decade.
WA does have a chance this week to start making some serious progress in the form of wins. The Patriots got two wins all of last year and one of them came at home against East Rankin Academy. That’s where WA will be this weekend in Pelahatchie when they take on the other group of Patriots on their home turf.
East Rankin is coached by first-year man Jonathan Worrell who had five successful seasons at Forest High School and has come over to Pelahatchie. ERA has had a first couple of weeks just like WA as they were shut out in the first game by Central Holmes Christian 35-0 and then lost a tough 17-16 game to River Oaks (La.).
Both schools are at a stalemate with their respective division schedules getting closer and closer over the next few weeks. For WA, they’re hoping to take that next step on Friday and get confidence for their young team.
