By Johnny Falduto of Friday Night Final - only on The ROAR
Christ Church (5-0, 8-1) continued its undefeated run in region play with a dominant 60-14 win on the road against St. Joseph’s (3-2, 7-2) on Friday night.
After totaling 147 yards and four touchdowns on just seven carries last week against Dixie, Christ Church running back Dashun Reeder one-upped himself with a 204-yard, four touchdown performance against the Knights, pushing himself over the 30 touchdown mark this regular season.
“I give credit to my father for keeping me on the straight and narrow so I can confidently make plays that help my team,” said the junior of his success. “And I also give credit to the coaches and the offensive line, who play major parts- whether it’s making great blocks or even just encouraging me- every one of them gets the credit for the successful game.”
Reeder’s first score of the night came just 1:10 into the opening quarter, as he broke several St. Joseph’s tackles on his way to a 49-yard touchdown, giving the Cavaliers an early 7-0 advantage.
“St. Joseph’s always has a big crowd and they play a slow game with the offense they run, so to get on the board early like that, it definitely put pressure on them,” said Christ Church quarterback Woods Windham, who finished the game a nearly perfect 10/11 completions for 215 yards and two touchdowns. His 56-yard pass to senior receiver B.J. Atkins helped set up Reeder’s second rushing touchdown of the game, extending the Cavaliers’ lead to 14-0 late in the first quarter.
The biggest offensive play of the game for the Knights came on the first snap of their next possession, when junior Harrison Zinkann took a screen pass from quarterback Walker Wood 80 yards into the end zone to cut the Christ Church in half. That was about as close as the Knights would get, though, as a Constantine Gandis 43-yard field goal, Reeder’s third touchdown of the night, a blocked punt recovered by the Cavaliers in the end zone, and a Woods Windham strike to Jackson Repp would blow this game open in a matter of minutes and give Christ Church a 39-7 advantage going into the half.
“Dashun (Reeder) is a really huge part about why our offense is so successful,” said Woods Windham. “He had so much success running the ball, so they started to bring their linebackers down, giving us room to throw the ball. And then our receivers just did a really good job of getting open.”
Picking up right where he left off in the first half, Dashun Reeder ended his night with a 76-yard touchdown run midway through the third quarter, making it 46-7 in favor of the Cavaliers. A B.J. Atkins long touchdown catch and a Joseph Mikesell pick-six rounded out the scoring for Christ Church, and a last-minute score by St. Joseph’s Harrison Zinkann brought the final to 60-14.
The win marks Christ Church’s sixth road win of the season, a feat that its players see as an advantage going forward the rest of the way: “With big playoff environments on the road coming up, these games set us up to be able to deal with all the fans and media and focus on the game we love and not all the spectators,” said Reeder, with Windham simply adding that the team has shown that they can “play in any environment.”
St. Joseph’s looks to finish its regular season on a high note as they host McCormick (3-2, 5-4) next Friday, while Christ Church returns home to battle it out with a Southside Christian team that also finds itself undefeated in region play (4-0, 5-3) going into the final week of the regular season.
“I think this team has no limits,” said Windham. “We have a great balance of talent and work ethic, and hopefully that will lead us to success.”
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Tune in to our Tri-County Tech High School Football Game of the Week Friday nights at 7pm followed by Friday Night Final.
