By Chris Megginson | For the Reporter

ALABASTER – A two-touchdown lead for Kingwood Christian School helped the Lions weather a near hour-long lightning delay to defeat Coosa Valley Academy, 21-0, in a rainy home game Friday at Ron Cox Field.

The win, which avenged a 34-32 loss to CVA last year, improved KCS to 3-0 for the first time to start a season since the late Jerry Starnes coached the Lions to a 6-0 start in 2006. It is also KCS’s first three-game win streak since 2014.

“I wasn’t sure how long it had been, but felt it had been a while,” said KCS head coach Todd Bradford. “To open up with a win on the road like we did and to win back-to-back rivalry games to be 3-0, this group that came back from last year, I’m very happy for our kids that decided to hang around and make a change. What we’ve done is working on changing the culture around here. It’s a big buy in for everyone. Our workout participation from the summer is spilling over into the season. That’s why we’re able to do what we do.”

Tyler West put KCS on the board with a 76-yard touchdown run early in the game, followed by a 10-yard touchdown from Peyton Long. It was 13-0 Kingwood when the rains came with 2:11 to play in the first quarter.

West finished with 114 yards on nine carries.

“What I see him doing so well is he has great vision and he hits the hole so quick. He’s got 6 or 7 yards before you can blink. That long run was just him breaking through that first level and there was no body who could catch him,” Bradford said.

While CVA had not found the end zone yet, quarterback Brayson Edwards was in a rhythm, connecting on 6-of-7 passes before the weather delay. He finished the game 8-of-9 passing for 82 yards. Reid Maddox was on the receiving end of five of the passes.

After a more than two-hour rain delay, made up of a few short delays, play resumed, but CVA’s game plan was scrapped. The teams finished out a full first half, but decided to shorten halftime to five minutes and both the third and fourth quarters to seven minutes each due to a heavy rain.

Long scored his second touchdown to push KCS’s lead to 19-0, then Tony Ruiz, fresh off his ESPN Sports Center Top 10 play from Aug. 24, converted the 2-point conversion to make it 21-0 Lions.

Coosa Valley was unable to do much on the ground as Kingwood’s defense posted its second shutout of the season.

“I’m proud of how well our defense played. Late in the game we were able to get a stop to keep the shutout and I know that’s something they wanted. I’m just proud of how they finished this and how this night went, going on and off the field. They were able to stay focused and there were no injuries with this wet field,” Bradford said.

Austyn Franklin and Boston Busch led the Kingwood defense with six and four assisted tackles, respectively. Jacob Bradford recorded a sack in the second quarter.

CVA head coach Jamie Scruggs said despite the loss, he was pleased with the way his defense responded, especially holding the Lions to only seven points after the delays.

“They’re a really good team. They played well. They’re a very physical team. There’s a reason they’re 3-0,” Scruggs said. “We came back out after the delay and did some things a lot better, especially defensively. I was pleased with how we closed out the game on defense. We just couldn’t get it going offensively.”

Kaleb Allen and Cody Eades each had nine tackles to lead CVA’s defense, while Eades and Harley Gerald each recovered KCS fumbles in the second half.

Both teams will open region play next week. Kingwood (3-0) will travel to Tuscaloosa Academy on Aug. 7, while Coosa Valley (1-2) will host Autauga Academy.