Christiana Middle completes perfect football season; Rocky Fork beats the odds

You've heard the cliche "tale of two halves" when referring to a football game.

Saturday's Rutherford County Middle School football championship game was a tale of two success stories.

On one side you had an experienced and talented Christiana squad that had beaten all but one team by the mercy rule during the season.

On the other you had a first-year program that didn't even have a home practice field.

When the final whistle blew, unbeaten Christiana rolled to a 44-8 victory over Rocky Fork Middle at Riverdale High School.

"We had a very strong eighth-grade class, but a strong seventh-grade class, too," said Christiana first-year coach Michael Stevenson. "We'll be right back ready to compete next year."

Running backs Brayden Woodruff and Martin Gutierrez both found the end zone while quarterback Jameson Holcomb found Cade Hewitt on a pair of TD passes in the win for Christiana — its first county title.

The defense, which had been strong all year, came through again for the Cougars.

"(Assistant coaches) Kevin Phillips and Rodney Bonds did a great job all year long," Stevenson said. "The defense was loaded this year. They were hungry and ready to play. (Linebacker) Alex Mitchell is a great leader and (tackle) Richie Cathey was a force. You were not going to block him with one guy."

Christiana's closest game was a 27-6 victory over Siegel during the season. The Cougars finished 9-0.

Battling the odds

Rocky Fork was the surprise of the county league this season, going 7-1 and reaching the championship in its first season.

And the Storm did it despite having no home practice field and lacking in equipment.

Those weren't excuses for the squad and Coach David Cowan, who was the head coach at Christiana last season.

"The players and staff, we set the bar high and we went into it," said Cowan. "It was a great thing. I'm proud of the boys. We were undermanned, but they took on the challenge."

Because of several factors, including location (the school was built on rocks and in a fork), the Rocky Fork program did not have a practice field and made the best of places they could get in their work.

"During the summer, we used Smyrna High School and Stewarts Creek Middle fields — they were nice enough to help us," Cowan said. "We were all over the place. When the season started they had to use their fields, so we basically had to practice in someone's yard. You can imagine.

"We didn't have sleds and other things that you would with your own facility. We had challenges."

The players endured the challenges en route to a seven-win season.

The Storm were led by quarterback/defensive back Charles Ingram, who is "one of the most unique athletes I've seen," Cowan said. "He has a great attitude and his work ethic is exceptional."

Other team leaders included linemen Clayton Mayo, Tyrone Ford and Hayden Gerhart and tight end/linebacker Cavrin Keel.

"Out of our original 31 players, only seven had played before," Cowan said.

With a successful season over, Rocky Fork will now turn its attention to landscaping an area on campus adequate for practicing.

"We've been dealing with no field since April," Cowan said. "Most new schools are fortunate to be near grass. We weren't as fortunate.

“We’ve had a breakthrough We’ve had some parents with resources. It was a landscaping thing. We thought we would have everything we needed (prior to the season), but it just didn’t happen. We had a lot of obstacles — time, money, resources and other things.

“But this is a great group of boys and coaching staff. They’ve been very flexible. I never heard any excuses. The adversity brought us together, gave us a purpose and something to overcome. The boys took on that challenge.”

Reach Cecil Joyce at cjoyce@dnj.com or 615-278-5168 and on Twitter @Cecil_Joyce.