Crenshaw Christian Academy’s dreams of a 1A championship came to an abrupt end last Friday night when Shelby Academy raced to a 42-14 verdict at Raider stadium.

Coach Roland Jones’ Cougars finished the 2004 football season with a respectable 7-4 mark. The Raiders improved to 9-2 and will advance to play Lowndes Academy.

CCA will graduate 10 seniors from this year's squad including, Bubba Faulk, Andrew Griffin, Corey Walden, Nick Atkinson, Wallace Kelley, Foster Carpenter, Russell Pettis, Parker Wallace, Mason Pettus and Brandon Baines.

Faulk who ran for 131 yards on 28 carries led crenshaw offensively. Faulk notched both CCA scores, kicked both point after attempts and was the second leading tackler on defense with seven solo stops and one assist. He finished the season with 1,692 yards and 20 TDs.

Also helping out offensively were Sloan Carter who finished with 10 carries for 50 yards, Shawn Nelson who rushed for 24 yards on four totes, Derek Manning with 17 yards and Andrew Armour with eight yards to round out the Cougar ground assault.

Quarterback Klein Jones hit on five of 21 tosses for 29 yards and two interceptions.

Chief headhunter for the Cougars was Carpenter with eight individual kills and two assists. Not far behind were Sloan Carter with a 5-1 chart, Pettus and Pettis with 4-1 cards apiece, Parker Wallace three tackles and one assist and Atkinson and Kelley with three solos stops each.

The home-standing Raiders went up on top on their initial possession with an impressive three-play drive. The tally came on a 65-yard touchdown run to go on top 7-0 at the 8:44 mark in the first period.

Crenshaw would counter to even the score with an 80-yard, eight-play drive. Faced with a fourth-and-one at the Shelby 38-yard-line, Coach Jones went to his bag of tricks with a fake punt. A direct snap to Faulk caught the Raiders napping as he raced up the middle for the score. Faulk’s boot knotted the score at 7-7 with 5:17 left in the opening stanza.

The Raiders bounced right back with a 60-yard drive that resulted in a touchdown. The six-pointer came on another big run, this time from 45 yards out to widen their margin to 13-7.

Minutes later Shelby would add to their lead with a 21-yard touchdown jaunt. The kick made it 20-7 at the close of the first period.

Crenshaw finally countered with another long-distance drive. Faulk capped off a 73-yard, 17-play drive to slice the margin to 20-14. With 5:46 left in the second quarter it appeared as though the momentum was in the Cougars’ favor.

But that would be it for the Cougars as the Raiders reeled off three unanswered scores to take the win.

The first came just before intermission. It was a back-breaker as the Raiders capped off an 82-yard drive with a 34-yard scoring run to make it 28-14 at halftime.

It would be all Shelby in the second half as they recorded two scores in the third stanza.

The first came on a 72-yard punt return to pad the Raiders' lead 35-14 at the 4:06 mark and the second would come at the close of the third period to make the final 42-14.