Special to the Reporter

The Evangel Christian School Lightning struck early and often Friday night in their season opening high school football contest, defeating Rocket City, 54-16, in Huntsville.

It was the inaugural game for the first-year Evangel school from Helena, which is made up of homeschool students.

Junior halfback Clint Armstrong ran for 87 yards and three first-half touchdowns to pace the Lightning. He also scored on a two-point conversion.

The Lightning jumped out to a 30-8 halftime lead, led by Armstrong’s touchdowns of four, 20 and 10 yards. Blake Armsrong, Clint’s brother, scored the other touchdown on a 16-yard interception return of a Chad Christian pass.

Evangel continued the scoring in the third quarter on a Jeremy Houser-to-Seth Clayton, 33-yard scoring pass and a four-yard run by Geoffrey Dean. Dean ran for 77 yards on 10 carries, one touchdown, and two 2-point conversions. Houston Walker gained 48 yards on five tries.

John Tatum and Kevin Marlowe also ran for two-point conversions for the Lightning, and Clayton caught a two-point reception from Richard Ketchum.

C.J. Britton’s 30-yard interception return later in the quarter finished the Lightning’s scoring run, as Evangel led 54-8 after three periods.

Evangel coach Steve Dean was pleased with his team’s first-ever action.

&uot;It was a good first game,&uot; he said. &uot;We played hard and were able to play a lot of people.

We

made a lot of mistakes, as you might expect in a first game, but it was still a great win for our new program.&uot;

The Evangel defense held Rocket City to just seven first downs and forced five turnovers, including the two interceptions returned for touchdowns.

Octavius Leftwich scored the Cowboys’ first touchdown on a 72-yard kickoff return in the first quarter. Chad Christian capped the scoring with a 1-yard scoring run in the final period.

Evangel, 1-0, plays its first-ever home game next Friday night at Hoover Central Stadium against Harvester Christian of Douglasville, Ga