WHITE PINE — Behind a dominant first quarter, The King’s Academy rolled relatively easy on Friday night versus Lakeway Christian Academy.
Senior running back Nakelin McAfee put the game out of reach early with four first quarter touchdowns as The King’s Academy took a 28-6 lead after the first 12 minutes.
The Lions were without Malik Sholanke, Garrett Cogdill and Nick Donato on the lines of scrimmage, but McAfee still found holes early en route to a 42-27 win.
“We started some new guys, because we are beat up up front right now,” The head coach Jonathan Sellers said. “I think those guys responded really well, and we were able to run the football which is something that we put an emphasis on every week. It was good for Nakelin to get out here and play some and get some reps, but also be able to take some time off to help him get healed up as well.”
While the final result was never in doubt, things started to turn in favor of the Lakeway Lions’ (2-5 overall, 0-2 in DII-A East Region) way in the second half.
After Middle Tennessee Christian shredded The King’s Academy a week ago with the single wing offense, Lakeway Christian used deception and a similar approach in the second half to crawl out of a 42-13 hole.
Lakeway Christian scored two fourth quarter touchdowns, and they were set to get the ball back late.
However, a muffed punt recovered by Zeke Connatser put the lights out on any comeback attempt.
“He is a turnover machine,” Sellers said. “That is his fifth pick I think and third fumble recovery. For some reason this year, the ball keeps finding his hands and I am really glad it does.”
Lakeway’s two second half touchdowns came on back-to-back drives early in the fourth quarter, which were sandwiched between a turnover by The King’s Academy.
“(The single wing offensive) is something new that we haven’t seen a ton of on film from them,” Sellers said. “They saw that Middle Tennessee Christian had some success with it, and it is one of those things that is still a little unfamiliar to us. We just have to continue to show the kids film and on the practice field to get used to it. I haven’t seen that ran since the last two weeks, and I don’t think it has been popular since the 1960s, but maybe TKA football is bringing it back.”
The only troublesome areas for The King’s Academy (5-2 overall, 2-1 in DII-A East Region) were a couple busted coverages in the secondary and three turnovers, though one was on a controversial pass that was called a lateral.
Sellers hopes to clean those things up in the coming weeks as they Lions are off this week and play at Webb Bell Buckle in their final region game in two weeks.
“The most important part of every offensive play from little league to the NFL is that at the end of the play you still have the football,” Sellers said. “Tonight three times that didn’t happen so we need to get that fixed.”
McAfee finished with the four scores on 11 carries for 120 yards in the win.
The King’s Academy totaled over 420 yards of total offense, while sophomore quarterback Elijah Williams-Smith went 9-18 passing for 125 yards with a touchdown to sophomore Marshaun Bowers late in the first half.
“The first half was good and we did a lot of things really well. We still have a ball that gets put on the ground and those things can’t happen,” Sellers said. “Defensively, we are still missing a few tackles and we had one or two busted coverages. Those are things that our guys know we can’t have going forward. All in all, our guys came out and did their job. I am proud of how they responded after last week.”