Henderson leads Evangel to dominant win

Published 10:29 am Monday, October 15, 2018

By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Sports Editor

HUNTSVILLE – A week after a dominant 68-0 shutout against Lighthouse Homeschool and two weeks after head coach Tim Smith picked up his 100th win against Success Unlimited by a final of 60-40, the Evangel Lightning picked up their third consecutive dominant win in a row against the Freedom Academy Cowboys by a final score of 52-22 on Friday, Oct. 12.

Now sitting at 6-3 overall this season, all three of the Lightning’s losses have come to AISA level football teams, which play 11-man football teams, compared to Evangel’s 8-man conference.

The impressive thing about Evangel right now is the way the defensive side of the ball is playing.

In 8-man competition each of the last two weeks, which tends to see more offense than defense, the Lightning have pulled off a shutout and given up just 22 points, to bring them to a combined 22 points through the last two weeks, while scoring 180 points

“The defense is still playing at a high level,” Smith said. “With Tyler (Henderson) leading the offense and Hunter (Green) leading the defense, it’s just a fun team to watch. We are hoping to get some of our injured kids back this week. That will help us with some depth. This has been a difficult season with all of the injuries, but this team has been resilient. They just step up and keep playing.”

In the recent win against Freedom, Henderson had one of the best games donning the blue and silver posting 421 passing yards on 17-of-20 passing as well as five touchdowns.

“He had a career night,” Smith said. “I’ve never seen him throw the ball that well.”

Dawson Humphries was his top target on the receiving end of seven passes for 231 touchdowns and four touchdowns. Carter Hand added three receptions for 119 yards and two touchdowns. Seth Harrison had three receptions for 53 yards and one touchdown.

Defensively, Hunter Green led the team with 15 tackles, while Daniel Vines and Nate Arvizu added nine and Jahmad Quillman had six. Green also added a fumble recovery.

The Lightning will now travel to Lyman Ward Military Academy on Friday, Oct. 19, to close out the regular season, before vying for another ACSC State Championship.