A lot of little things turned into one big thing for Christian County, as a spirited comeback against the Murray Tigers ended in a 56-32 defeat Friday night at Ty Holland Stadium.
Colonels sophomore quarterback Jordan Miles proved calm and collected despite falling behind 28-7 early in the second quarter — finishing with 95 yards passing and one touchdown alongside 13 rushes for 172 yards and a pair of second-half scores.
“Coach pretty much just lets me do what I want out there,” Miles said. “If I don’t like a play, I can call a different one and do what I can do for the offense.”
Teammates in senior running back Xzavier Quarles rolled up 128 yards rushing and a touchdown on the opening drive of the second half, while sophomore wide receiver Prince Northington II added four catches and 68 yards receiving — a 43-yard screen down the right sideline helping set up Jalen Peters’ 2-yard touchdown in the first quarter.
But the Tigers rolled up more than 500 yards in team rushing behind an effective and powerful triple option that often found edges and creases — and when those closed, tosses worked magic. The Sokolowski brothers, Rowdy (176) and Gage (186), combined for 362 yards rushing and four rushing touchdowns. Kainoa Olive finished with 89 yards rushing and three scores — two coming in Murray’s first two drives.
And Xavier Biggers finished with 10 carries and 75 yards, adding a 55-yard touchdown catch over the middle for a 20-7 lead late in the first quarter.
The play came directly after the Colonels had forced a 4th-and-2 near midfield, but were then flagged for encroachment to give Murray a critical first down.
“For the most part, we executed what the game plan was and we put points on the board, and that was crucial against a team like this — that can hold the ball for an entire quarter, run it on every single play and be effective at it and also put points on the board,” noted first-year Colonels coach Ricky Gehres. “But we didn’t want to get into a scoring race with them, and that’s exactly what happened.
“So when that happens with a good time like that, it’s going to come down who makes the mistakes first. And that was us again.”
The Colonels, still without a bevy of starters on both sides of the ball, did miss some opportunities. A long field-goal try in the first quarter, down 14-7, came after Miles and Quarles notched back-to-back carries covering more than 40 yards combined. Early in the second quarter, Miles had a wide-open Northington II on a third-down playaction pass, only to just miss the touchdown catch by inches.
Other mistakes were a bit more painful. The Colonels had the Tigers facing 4th-and-7 near midfield with a little more than nine minutes left in the first half, when a screen pass from Rowdy Sokolowski to Olive went for 10 yards. Two carries from G. Sokolowski were followed by two from R. Sokolowski, and Murray went up 27-7.
With 4:49 left in the second quarter, a botched snap fell the Colonels’ way on a recovered fumble by Anthony Beasley. A 30-yard scamper from Miles helped set up an 8-yard touchdown pass from him to Jerry Foster III, cutting it to 28-13.
Olive’s third touchdown rush, however, came on the very next drive and put Murray up 34-14 — a two-minute march taking six plays leading into halftime.
Christian County had its clearest opportunity to stay close in the third quarter. The Colonels scored on their first two drives of the second half — a 1-yard touchdown from Quarles and a fourth-down, 32-yard rush from Miles — when they recovered a fumbled pooch kick, down 42-26.
Score there, Gehres noted, and it’s a one-possession game with a ton of momentum on the road.
Instead, a substitution on the offensive line unfortunately led to a tough botched fumble that was recovered by Murray, and G. Sokolowski would gash for a 50-yard touchdown up the middle five plays later for the 48-26 advantage.
“We’ve got to clean up the mistakes,” Gehres added. “But that’s the horizon thing that I’m talking about. The kids see the results. And if we just fix this thing or that thing, we’re right there. And this is without our whole team. We’re still missing our guys on offense and the same guys on defense. What they got out of this is that we’re getting more guys back next week, and we’ll be even more full force the week after.
“If we can just get to that part, clean up our mistakes, we’ll be back to where we were in week one. That’s what I’m excited about, and that’s what they’re excited about.”
The Colonels were outgained on offense 600-393. The 32 points scored, however, are a season-best.
MURRAY 56, CHRISTIAN COUNTY 32
Colonels (1-5) 7 7 12 6 – 32
Murray (3-1) 21 14 14 7 – 56
SCORING
MUR: Kainoa Olive 13 rush (Ben Davis PAT), 7-0, 8:39 1Q
CC: Jalen Peters 2 rush (Josh Settles PAT), 7-7, 7:23 1Q
MUR: Kainoa Olive 12 rush (Ben Davis PAT), 14-7, 5:33 1Q
MUR: Xavier Biggers 55 pass from Rowdy Sokolowski (Ben Davis PAT), 21-7, 1:10 1Q
MUR: Rowdy Sokolowski 24 rush (Ben Davis PAT), 28-7, 8:11 2Q
CC: Jerry Foster III 12 pass from Jordan Miles (Josh Settles PAT), 28-14, 2:27 2Q
MUR: Kainoa Olive 4 rush (Ben Davis PAT), 35-14, 0:25 2Q
CC: Xzavier Quarles 2 rush (PAT blocked), 35-20, 9:08 3Q
MUR: Rowdy Sokolowski 6 rush (Ben Davis PAT), 42-20, 6:52 3Q
CC: Jordan Miles 32 rush (2 pt. Pass Fails), 42-26, 4:40 3Q
MUR: Gage Sokolowski 50 rush (Ben Davis PAT), 49-26, 0:44 3Q
CC: Jordan Miles 23 rush (2 pt. Rush Fails), 49-32, 11:53 4Q
MUR: Gage Sokolowski 1 rush (Ben Davis PAT), 56-32, 7:46 4Q
STATISTICS
PASSING LEADERS
CC: Jordan Miles 8-14-95-1-0. MUR: Rowdy Sokolowski 2-6-64-1-0.
RUSHING LEADERS
CC: Jordan Miles 13-172-2, Xzavier Quarles 19-128-1, Jalen Peters 3-(-2)-1. MUR: Gage Sokolowski 27-186-2, Rowdy Sokolowski 15-176-2, Kainoa Olive 9-89-3, Xavier Biggers 10-75, Jayden Curtis 3-10.
RECEIVING LEADERS
CC: Prince Northington 4-68, Jerry Foster III 1-12-1, Xzavier Quarles 1-9, Zamien Matlock 1-7. MUR: Xavier Biggers 1-54-1, Kainoa Olive 1-10.
TACKLE LEADERS
CC: Omarion Wimberly 7, Devontravion Wilford 6.5, Jaden Reaves 5. MUR: Xavier Biggers 6, Collin Wilson 5 (1 TFL), Caleb Gill 4.5 (1 sack, 2 TFL).
