One of the area’s most unfamiliar high school football teams has continued to slowly turn heads with their performance nearly every week – and Friday night was no exception.
The Lighthouse Christian Chargers (4-1), a homeschool team based in Springfield that have collected five national titles, made easy work of the Jasper Eagles (2-3) on Friday in the form of a 58-12 win at Hillcrest High School.
Coming into the contest, the Chargers knew exactly what they wanted to do against a Jasper team that had allowed at least 40 points in three games this season.
“We wanted to definitely score high and score high fast,” Lighthouse Christian sophomore quarterback Braeden Mathews said. “We just wanted to get in the end zone as fast as we could in this game.”
However, the game plan didn’t exactly go as intended as Lighthouse Christian only managed to cling to an 8-6 lead after the first twelve minutes of play, largely due to a stingy Eagles defense that ultimately picked off Mathews five times on the night.
“It took us a while, and we can’t have five interceptions,” said Chargers head coach Rian Bess. “I think (Mathews’) steps were off a little bit, but once we got things kind of settled down a little bit, things worked out.”
Making the necessary adjustments, Mathews rallied to throw his second TD of the game with 6:07 to play in the second period – acting as a precursor to a 30-point third quarter.
Senior Caleb Miranda, who possesses some seriously impressive speed and pass-catching abilities, was on the other side of Mathews’ touchdown passes on three separate occasions.
“He’s kind of our go-to guy,” Bess said of Miranda. “We knew he would have a good game coming into this. When you’re open, it’s easy to throw the ball to a guy like that. Plus, he’s quick, so that helps.”
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE GAME
Miranda was able to rack up 127 receiving yards in the win – making life that much easier for Braeden (387 passing yards).
“We have a great connection,” Miranda said. “Even though this is a new offense, we’ve just been working on running the routes and getting the ball in there. He does his job, I do my job, catch the ball and get some more out of it.”
The Chargers’ defensive unit did its job as well by forcing three Jasper fumbles and an interception, a far cry from a less-than-stellar performance in a 45-36 defeat to Holden one week ago.
“We did much better than last week,” Bess said of his defense. “We really had a good practice this week and you could tell it worked a lot better tonight.”
Friday’s victory is certainly pleasing to Bess, but his talented squad knows even bigger things await on the horizon as the Chargers look to contend for their sixth national championship in November.
“We’re trying to get back on track,” added Bess. “We do get to play some great competition around here, so we love it.”
Lighthouse Christian plays Forsyth on the road next Friday, while Jasper returns home to host Stockton.
Lighthouse Christian 58, Jasper 12
Jasper – 6-0-6-0 – 12
Lighthouse Christian – 8-14-30-6 – 58
First quarter
Lighthouse Christian – Miranda 21 catch from Mathews (two-point conversion good)
Jasper – Hatfield 5 run (two-point conversion no good)
Second quarter
Lighthouse Christian – Miranda 4 catch from Mathews (two-point conversion no good)
Lighthouse Christian – Jett 45 fumble return (two-point conversion good)
Third quarter
Lighthouse Christian – Miranda 65 catch from Mathews (two-point conversion good)
Lighthouse Christian – Winston 12 catch from Mathews (two-point conversion good)
Lighthouse Christian – Bess 22 catch from Mathews (two-point conversion good)
Jasper – Hatfield 83 run (two-point conversion no good)
Lighthouse Christian – Winston 37 catch from Mathews (two-point conversion no good)
Fourth quarter
Lighthouse Christian – Bess 25 catch from Fields (two-point conversion no good)
