By Kevin Eckleberry

kevin.eckleberry@lagrangenews.com

LAGRANGE – They were supposed to be playing football last week at Lafayette Christian School, but a basketball game broke out instead.

With a final score that would have seemed much more at home in a gymnasium, it was Lafayette Christian outlasting Praise Academy 88-74 in a game that featured more than 20 touchdowns.

The Cougars scored 12 of those touchdowns, and they needed most of them to get their first win of the season.

“Offensively, we really clicked,” Lafayette Christian head coach Nate Shaw said. “Defensively, they had one play that they kept getting us on, and they had a couple of special-teams touchdowns, too.”

It was the home finale for the Cougars, so it was the final opportunity for the players to secure a victory in their own stadium.

Thanks to the offensive fireworks, the Cougars made it happen.

“I was proud of our guys,” Shaw said. “They wanted to sing the fight song to the home crowd, and we got a chance to do that.”

Lafayette Christian accumulated 29 first downs and more than 500 yards, and junior quarterback Landon Whitley did a lot of the damage.

Whitley was a busy man Friday night, running for 200 yards on 32 carries, and he scored five touchdowns.

Whitley also completed a pair of passes for 52 yards.

Freshman Amani Jenkins, one of the many outstanding young players on the roster, ran for 151 yards on 21 attempts with two touchdowns.

“Amani Jenkins really showed out, and he’s going to be a force in this league,” Shaw said. “He’s been running better and better and better, and he’s been getting out in the open.”

Jacob Lueken ran for 125 yards on 18 carries with a touchdown, and Mitch Crandall had 71 yards on six attempts with four touchdowns.

Ben Dixon, another freshman, ran for 27 yards with a touchdown.

While the Lafayette Christian defense struggled, it did force some key turnovers.

“Defensively, it seems like there’s nothing good you can say, but in that kind of game turnovers matter,” Shaw said. “We turned them over four times, and that effectively gave us four stops, and we converted on those four plays. And they were forced turnovers. We earned those turnovers. And sometimes that’s the way it goes.”

Lafayette Christian will visit Holy Ground Baptist Academy on Friday, and it will finish the regular season with a game at Twiggs Academy on Oct. 27.