GA falls to Pike Academy, 54-42
Published 12:00 am Saturday, September 8, 2001
Greenville Academy rolled into Troy Friday night to take on the Pike Liberal Arts Patriots and the two teams had an old fashioned shootout.
Less than two minutes into the game and both teams had scored. It was a reoccuring theme, the Patriots would score and the Tornados would answer.
The two teams combined to score 96 points in a 54-42 Patriot win. The Patriots used an air attack in which Quarterback Layton Sanders threw for 298 yards and four touchdowns. Sanders picked the tornado secondary apart, but the Patriot defense continued to be volnerable against the run.
Greenville academy piled up 358 yards and four touchdowns on the ground. Runningback Randy Faulk and company did most of the damage by capitalizing on several inside traps and dives.
The Patriots were leading 47-22 in the fourth quarter when Coach Mack Williams decide that he needed to get his reserves some experience. The Tornados stormed back though and stayed in the contest. One of the key factors in the game was turnovers.
The Patriots protected the football better than Greenville Academy, only fumbling once and not throwing any picks. Greenville Academy's quarterback was picked off twice.
Pike Liberal opened the game scoring on a three play drive 26 seconds into the game. The pass from Sanders to Druid Conrad covered 46 yards as the Patriots went up 7-0.
It only took Greenville one play to reach the endzone. The Tornados tailback took the ball up the middle, broke a couple of tackles, and 71 yards later was in the endzone.
The Patriots led Greenville Academy 40-14 at the half and each team used several big plays in the second half to run the score up to 54-42. The Patriots used the victory to break a two-game skid and improve to 1-2 on the season. Coach Williams praised the Greenville team saying that they were a tough team with a lot of character.
Randy Faulk gained the most ground for GA with 161 yards in 22 attempts. Andy Beck followed with 123 yards in 12 attempts and Adam Moore had 49 yards on six attempts.
QB Adam Moore completed six of 15 passes for 128 yards and three interceptions.
Brooks Moore, Colt Brantley and Andy Beck each had five tackles for the GA defense. Travis Watson made four tackles. Tyler Moore made three and a fumble recovery and Jim Kilpatrick has two tackles and a fumble recovery.
The Tornados will travel to Edgewood next week.