All season football opponents have tried unsuccessfully to contain Faith Christian’s offensive attack.
On this particular night, The Academy would have settled for slowing down Faith quarterback Micah Twedell.
Instead, the senior completed 8-of-12 passes for 138 yards and two touchdowns, in addition to rushing for 177 yards and a score, to lead the Eagles to a dominant 47-7 win over the Wildcats on Friday, Oct. 2, at Faith Christian Academy in Arvada.
“(Twedell) is elusive enough, he’s kind of the x-factor in our offense where, if people are focusing on our tailbacks, he can really get to defenses on the inside,” Faith coach Blair Hubbard said. “And when defenses start to creep up (on the line) he can hurt people over the top, too.”
The win puts Faith (5-0, 2-0 in Class 2A Flatirons League) in the conference driver’s seat, while The Academy (4-1, 1-1) fell for first time this season. Faith appears to be on a collision course with rival Holy Family (4-1, 2-0). The two rivals face off at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 30, at Mike Gabriel Stadium in Broomfield.
The Eagles have outscored opponents a jaw-dropping 211-20 through five games.
“The coaches put us in great position to win tonight,” Twedell said. “We’ve got a lot of passion as players and they give us what we need to go out and be successful.”
But this game did not start the way it ended. The Academy played the Eagles extremely tight in the first half, the highlight of which was an eight-minute, 17-play drive, capped by a six-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Landin Caswell to Luke Thompson.
“We were doing well spreading the ball around a bit,” Wildcats’ coach Seth Replogle said. “(Caswell) was a beast; he came out and was handling the offense. I know we were giving (Faith) a hard time.”
Thompson’s touchdown tied the game at seven with 8 minutes, 55 seconds to play in the first half. After a Faith fumble gave the ball back to The Academy near midfield, it suddenly looked as though the Eagles were going to have a real test on their home field.
But the Eagles defense held, forcing a quick three-and-out.
From there, Twedell took over, leading the Eagles on a five-play, 60-yard drive ending with Twedell running a 10-yard keeper for the tie-breaking score. The drive took just 1:30.
“We made a few corrections on the sideline and things started to click,” Twedell said.
Faith nearly made it 21-7 at the half following a Caswell interception, but the Wildcats defense held at the goal line to keep the score at 14-7. It turned out the second quarter offensive breakout was just a foreshadowing of the second half.
The Eagles needed less than two minutes to drive down the field and score again, this time on a Twedell play-action pass to Nolan Beasley for a 33-yard touchdown.
“The guys were all mad at halftime, feeling like they weren’t playing well,” Hubbard said. “I figured we’d come out with some intensity in the second half.”
Faith scored on its next four drives as well, getting another touchdown pass from Twedell to Evan Marshall along with rushing scores from Richard Rush, Brandon Roche and Alex Buchmann.
“(The Eagles) have got a ton of great athletes,” said Caswell, who finished with 57 passing yards and one touchdown for the Wildcats. “But the way we played in the first half — that’s a level we haven’t reached before. I’m excited to play a full four quarters at that level.”
Up next, The Academy has another tough road test as it travels to Erie (4-1, 1-1) on Friday, Oct. 9. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. Faith faces Bishop Machebeuf at 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 10, at Aurora Public Schools Stadium.
“We just want to keep working and be as good as we can be,” Twedell said.