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Clarksville Academy Football Falls to Nashville Christian

Written by Scott Samuels

Clarksville Academy CougarsClarksville, TN – For the past two seasons Coach Todd Hood’s Clarksville Academy Cougars have ruled District 10-A.  Friday night at Simpson Field, Nashville Christian took over the reign of the District with a convincing 38-14 win.

In the first half the Academy stood toe to toe with the number 4 ranked team in the state of Tennessee in class A.  Both offenses were slow to get moving in the first quarter.

Clarksville Academy Football vs. Nashville Christian.
Clarksville Academy Football vs. Nashville Christian.

After the Academy’s 2nd punt in as many possessions, and a visit from the Channel Four News Touchdown Friday helicopter that landed on the Wes Smith Baseball Field, Nashville Christian used the last 4:35 of the first quarter and put together a 70 yard drive that culminated in the Eagles quarterback, Ryan Young, scrambling away from pressure and finding Freshman Mickey Martin behind the Cougar defense for a 35 yard touchdown pass as the horn sounded ending the first quarter.

The Academy answered with an 80 yard drive to start the 2nd quarter that knotted the game 7-7 and chewed up 5 1/2 minutes off the clock.  Quarterback Michael Conn accounted for 18 yards passing and 41 yards rushing on the drive.  31 of those yards coming on a 3rd and one run down to Nashville Christian’s 5 yard line.  Two plays later Conn dove across the end zone from 3 yards out.

On the Eagles’ next possession the Academy defense stiffened and after only 3 plays Nashville Christian was faced with a 4th down at their own 43.  The Eagles lined up in punt formation and then ran a fake with Martin taking off around the right side and weaving his way 50 yards down the field.  This set up a first and goal and sophomore fullback Daniel Bituli scored from 7 yards out to put the Eagles up 14-7 with 4:05 left until halftime.

The Academy went three and out and punted, but Bituli dropped a lateral pass on the very first play from scrimmage for the Eagles and the Cougars recovered giving them the football inside Nashville Christian territory and the slugfest was on.  Conn dropped back to pass and found senior Connor Wise, who caught the pass in between two defenders, turned and raced 46 yards to the end zone to tie the score at 14.

Nashville Christian answered that blow with one of their own. Aided by a face mask penalty by the Cougars, Young found tight end Willie Shane in the back of the end zone for a 22 yard scoring strike with less than 30 seconds left on the clock to put the Eagles ahead 21-14 going into halftime.

In the 2nd half, the bigger, stronger Eagles wore down the Cougars and scored 17 unanswered points, scoring on each possession they had in the half.  They began the 2nd half by recovering an attempt at an on-side kick by the Academy and chewing up 4 1/2 minutes with a mix of passes and rushes to take a 28-14 lead on a Bituli 5 yard scoring run.

Biuli scored again on their next possession with his second five yard scoring play.  This one made it 35-14 with 1:56 remaining in the 3rd quarter.  Seth Reynolds completed the scoring for the Eagles with a 22 yard field goal in the 4th quarter.

The Academy’s offense was stifled the entire 2nd half, having trouble moving the ball against a solid Eagle defense.  The Cougars did manage to move the ball on their last possession going 67 yards before turning the ball over on downs with less just a few seconds remaining on the clock.

The Academy fell to 6-4 on the year 3-2 in the district.  Nashville Christian improved to 9-1 and 4-0 in the district.  Both teams have advanced to the playoffs.

Box Score

1 2 3 4 Final
Nashville Christian 7 14 14 3 38
Clarksville Academy 0 14 0 0 14

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