Faulkner drills Kentucky Christian 31-6 as Eagles celebrate decade of football
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (faulknereagles.com) – Faulkner’s offense returned to the numbers of old with 477 yards of total production while the defense held Kentucky Christian scoreless in this afternoon’s 31-6 victory here at Billy D. Hilyer Stadium.
The Eagles struck first on a nine-play, 83-yard drive on their first possession of the game which culminated with a 23-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Clayton Nicholas to well-defended Rob Lockhart with just over 10 minutes remaining in the first quarter.
Faulkner was knocking on the door again at the top of the second after a pass interference call in the end zone gave the Eagles a first-and-goal opportunity at the Knights’ 2-yard-line.
After forcing a fourth-and-one situation Kentucky Christian’s defense came up the the team’s only scoring play of the outing when Johnny White recovered Nicholas’ fumble and carried it 86 yards for a touchdown.
The Knight’s missed the extra point.
Regan Amos answered immediately, however, when he bolted 64 yards on the ensuing kickoff return, laying the groundwork for Faulkner’s second score of the game.
Joe Jones capped the 37-yard drive with a 2-yard touchdown run out of a wildcat formation just two minutes later.
Amos logged a touchdown on the Eagles’ third scoring drive deep in the second quarter when he tallied a touchdown run from four yards out at the end of a 73-yard drive.
Amos finished the contest with 66 yards on 11 carries and added 36 more on six receptions.
Kicker Ryan Curran extended Faulkner’s lead to 28-6 just before the half when he made good on a 29-yard field goal.
The home team found the end zone for the final time on its first possession of the second half when Jones crashed through the defensive front from a yard out, again out of a wildcat formation.
Both teams battled the elements for the bulk of the third and fourth quarters, but it was Faulkner that seemed to struggle most with the rainy conditions. The Eagles fumbled and lost possession of the ball twice well inside the red zone in the second half.
“We’ve got three really great running backs and we like what all three can do,” said head coach Charlie Boren after the game. “It’s really import for us to be able to establish a running game and I thought we did a really great job of that today. Overall I thought the offense was solid but we keep shooting ourselves in the foot and there’s some things we have to get corrected and if we can do those things I think we’ll be pretty good, but we still have a lot of work to do.”
Lockhart and Jones both had record-setting days for the offense.
Lockhart had six catches totaling 79 yards elevating him to the top of the program’s career leader board. The senior wideout currently has 123 career receptions, besting the previous recored of 119 set by Jurell Williams in 2010. Lockhart is first Eagle receiver to break the 2,000 yard mark with 2,068 career reception yards following today’s game.
Jones’ 126-yards rushing on 14 carries this afternoon also catapulted him to the top of the Eagle career chart. The junior running back, who already controls the program’s rushing touchdown recored with 22, now sits at 1,737 career rushing yards, clipping Triston McCathern’s recored of 1,700 yards set in 2013. Today marked Jones’ seventh 100-plus yard game.
Nicholas was 19-for-31 with 219 yards, one touchdown and an interception against Kentucky Christian.
Trent Miles had 95 yards on 16 carries.
Faulkner’s defense was nothing short of outstanding in the lopsided win. The Eagles held the Knights to just 249 yards of total offense, 13 yards less than Faulkner’s average heading into the game.
The defense entered the event ranked eighth nationally in points allowed per game with 11.5 and today’s efforts trimmed that figure to just 7.7 over three contests after today’s shutout.
In addition, the Eagles ranked fourth in total sacks on the year with 10 and Banton Price and Chris Casher lifted that figure to 15 after adding three and two sacks each, respectively.
Price finished the game with seven tackles, which included 5.5 for a loss total of 18.5 yards, while Casher added five, three of which were for a loss totaling 12 yards.
The tackle leaders were Josh Keys and Nate Black with eight each and Keys forced a fumble.
After going 2-1 in there straight home games, Faulkner will play visitor for the first time this season next Saturday when it takes on 18th-ranked Georgetown in Kentucky. Kickoff is set for 12:30 central.
