Undefeated Faith 8th-grade football team makes history with win in Marble Falls
MARBLE FALLS —The Faith Academy Junior High football team made history Nov. 3 by beating Austin Hill Country 44-14.
With the victory, the Flames became the first junior high squad in the history of the private Christian school to post an undefeated record at 9-0. Other Faith squads had lost a game the last several years, but not this one.
“I knew they were good,” head coach Jason Cain said. “I knew they were dedicated to the work they put into it.”
Hill Country entered the contest undefeated as well.
Faith eighth-grader Jake Metcalf scored the game’s first touchdown thanks to a 45-yard scamper, 6-0.
After Hill Country took a 7-6 lead, seventh-grader Andy Garner broke numerous tackles to reach the end zone from 16 yards out to give the Flames a 12-7 lead in the second quarter.
The Knights answered right back for a 14-12 advantage. But those were their last points of the half.
The Flames scored on their next four possessions.
Metcalf scored on a seven-yard run for an 18-14 lead.
Garner hit paydirt again from 22 yards out to extend the advantage, 24-14.
Seventh-grader Dalton Mayberry ran in from 27 yards out, and eighth-grader Asa Ortiz caught a 35-yarder from Metcalf for a 38-14 half-time lead.
The Flames defense did the job, coaches said, forcing two consecutive turnovers on downs and a Metcalf interception to end the first half.
Garner added a touchdown with 7:18 remaining in the game, 44-14.
Cain said he knew the Flames’ biggest test of the season would be against the Knights.
“I always told them,” he said,” if they did the work I trained them to do, they would be unbeatable.”
For more on this story, pick up a copy of the Nov. 6 River Cities Sunday Tribune.