Faith Academy football faces Nueces Canyon
CAPTION: Faith Academy sophomore Egan Barnes (6) and seniors Andrew Houy (1) and Adam Merlick help anchor the Flames defensive attack. Photo by Stennis Shotts
The Faith Academy of Marble Falls football team welcomes Barksdale Nueces Canyon to Britton Field for a 7 p.m. kickoff Friday, Sept. 19.
It’s Faith’s homecoming game.
The Panthers began the season with a 46-0 thumping of Lohn in a contest that ended in the third quarter because of the mercy rule. Nueces Canyon scored 14 points in the first quarter, 26 in the second and six in the third.
The two losses have been to Highland 58-54 Sept. 5 and to Richland Springs 60-8 last week.
The Panthers trailed Highland 18-14 after the first quarter, 38-30 at the half, and 51-46 after the third stanza.
Faith head coach Jay Silvers said the Panthers want to be balanced on offense.
“Nueces Canyon is kind of a 50-50 on their offense,” he said. “They like to throw the ball, and they’ll run the ball. They’ve got a couple of running backs, a big back and kind of a small back. And so, yeah, they’re a 50-50.”
Against Highland senior quarterback Thalen Roller led the passing attack that generated 219 yards when he found a slew of pass catchers including senior receiver Ayden Gonzales for an eight-yard touchdown and sophomore fullback Colin Taylor for a 29-yard score. He also likes to throw to senior Hayden Stotts, who had catches of 20 and 13 yards, sophomore center Kreed Turner, who had a 20-yard reception, and freshman running back Bito Caarabajal for a 22-yard pass.
In an impromptu flea flicker senior running back Eli Burchett tossed to Carabajal, who got caught at the line of scrimmage and turned to toss the ball back to Burchett, who ran 12 yards.
The Panthers had 296 yards of total offense with 77 rushing yards and converted 4 of 8 third downs. Highland had 169 passing yards and 232 rushing yards for 401 yards of total offense.
Faith will counter with a stingy defense led by juniors Cooper Hansard and Price Rosemond, sophomores Graham McGraw, Quinton Merlick and Madden Kinnee and senior Andrew Houy. During their wins, the Flames have caused and recovered turnovers and have even scored defensive touchdowns.
Offensively, the Flames are led by sophomore Landon Silvers, junior Wade Dillard senior Adam Merlick and Houy.
The Flames are coming off their first loss of the season, a 54-46 setback to Fredericksburg Heritage.
CAPTION: Faith sophomore Madden Kinnee (7) is one of the top tacklers for the Flames. Photo by Stennis Shotts
