The Christian County Colonels overcame 239 yards in penalties and the loss of their starting quarterback to post their second win of the season on Thursday.
Christian (2-3) ran out to a 22-0 lead early in the third quarter and held off host Caldwell County 22-14 on Homecoming night at Tiger Stadium in Princeton.
Caldwell, still looking for its first win of the season, rallied late to make it a one-score game. The Tigers got the ball back at the Christian 36-yard line with 2 minutes left in the game, but the Colonels held on downs.
An incomplete fourth-down pass over the middle gave the ball back to Christian with 54 seconds to go, and the Colonels were able to run out the clock.
But while the Colonels posted the win on the scoreboard, the team suffered a big blow when senior quarterback Jordan Miles left the field in an ambulance in the third quarter with what was believed to be a neck injury.
Miles was 11 of 15 passing in the contest for 194 yards and two touchdowns. He also ran for 73 yards on 12 carries, helping Christian total 393 yards of offense on the night.
Prince Northington II also had a big game for the Colonels. He scored all three of his team’s touchdowns and had 213 yards of offense. Northington hauled in six passes for 120 yards and also ran the ball 10 times for 93 yards.
Northington scored on a 36-yard run with 7:17 left in the first quarter to put the visitors up 6-0.
Northington caught a 44-yard touchdown pass from Miles with 2:28 left in second period. Theolonius Quarles ran for the two-point conversion to send the Colonels to halftime with a 14-0 advantage.
When Northington reeled in a 25-yard scoring toss at the 10:35 mark of the third period, it seemed like Christian had total control of the contest. Quarles again ran for the conversion to extend the margin to 22-0.
Caldwell (0-6) countered with a 5-yard touchdown run from Gus Fox with 8:57 remaining in the third quarter. Timothy Nichols kicked the extra point to make it 22-7.
The Tigers then made things really interesting coming down the stretch. Fox scored on a 6-yard with 3:49 left in the contest. Nichols’ PAT cut the gap to 22-14.
Caldwell then stopped Christian just inches short of a first down with 2:00 to go. But the Tigers could not pick up a first down, and saw their comeback attempt thwarted with a 4th-and-6 pass fell incomplete.
Fox ran for 111 yards on 19 carries to lead the Caldwell offense. However, because of several lost yardage plays, the Tigers only had 93 yards rushing as a team.
Caldwell was held to 13 yards passing and 106 total yards.
However, the 24 penalties called on Christian helped keep the Tigers in the game. The number of fouls and penalty yardage by Christian were both the most ever by a Caldwell opponent.
The Tigers, meanwhile, were whistled for four penalties for 43 yards.
Another key stat saw Christian go 4-for-6 on fourth down conversions to keep drives alive.
Caldwell was 1-for-7 on third down and 0-for-4 on fourth down.
The contest was just the second Thursday night game in the history of Tiger Stadium, which opened in 1975. The other Thursday game was a loss to Mayfield in 1980.
Both teams enter district play next week.
The Colonels will play on Thursday night again, visiting Bowling Green for Class 5A 1st District action.
The Tigers will host Mayfield next Friday in a Class 2A 1st District matchup.
