As much as the outcome of the game was never in doubt last year, Friday night’s match up between ACA and Lynn was a close one-score affair until late in the fourth quarter. AC Walters' third score of the night, with 2:27 left in the contest, gave the Eagles the final margin of victory at 30-20. The win was the first of the year and although everything was not perfect, it was nice to put a mark in the win column for the first time in 2023.
Alabama Christian took the opening kickoff and marched to Lynn’s four yard line before the Bears defense stiffened and kept the Eagles out of the end zone. The offense featured David Ortiz-Ramirez getting outside and gashing the defense with big gains. After exchanging punts, ACA came up with the first big break of the game when Darrius Gardner picked off a Lynn pass and returned it 38 yards to the Lynn 37-yard line. Unfortunately, the Eagles squandered the opportunity and gave it right back with an interception of their own. The visiting Bears put together a 7-play 62-yard drive that consumed 4:26 of the second quarter clock to score the game’s first points.
With 3:55 left in the first half, there was question whether the Eagles had enough to score before intermission. Not only was there enough time to score once, Alabama Christian scored twice before the break. After two AC Walters’ runs gave ACA a first down, the offense caught a break as a mishandled snap looked to be a big loss and drive killer, but a helmet to helmet hit called against Lynn wiped out the loss and gave the offense new life with a first down at the Bear 34-yard line. Finally, facing a 3rd and 5 at the 16 with a little over a minute left, Walters broke through with a 16-yard scoring bolt to close the gap to 6-7. The score looked very similar to the touchdown he had last week against Catholic. The coaching staff and players did a masterful job with calling plays and getting out of bounds on the drive to save the team’s timeouts. The ensuing kickoff hit a Lynn up-man and William Milner recovered to give ACA another shot at scoring before halftime. The saved timeouts proved useful as the team drove to the 11-yard line and kicked a 28-yard field goal to take a 9-7 lead. Tyson Summers' kick came with just seven seconds left in the second.
The team rode the momentum from the first half right into the second half with a three and out from the defense aided by tackles from William Milner and Lane Smith. Lynn had a terrific punt that pinned ACA back to its own 6-yard line. On the first play of the half for the offense, David Ortiz-Ramirez outran everyone to the end zone on a 94-yard lightning strike to extend the lead to 16-7. The visitors responded with a scoring drive of their own and with 7:00 left in the third, ACA led 16-13. As the period closed, Alabama Christian drove into Lynn territory to set up an exciting final quarter.
On the second play of the fourth, AC Walters put a Bear defender on spin cycle as he left him at the 15-yard line on his way to a 26-yard score and a 23-13 lead. Once again, Lynn answered the bell with a long methodical drive running right up the middle to cut the score to 23-20. The march took over five minutes and left 6:34 on the clock in the contest. The Eagles goal was to run as much clock as possible and score late to put the game away, and that is exactly what they did. However, the drive got off to a rocky start as the offense faced a 3rd and 3 with 5:55 left. During the heat timeout it was decided to try and draw the defense off sides with a hard count and it worked. The gift five yards from Lynn gave ACA a first down and they never looked back. David Ortiz-Ramirez carried the rock three of the next four plays to set up a 1st and goal at the Lynn 8-yard line. On 3rd and goal, Walters scored from three yards out with 2:27 remaining for a 30-20 cushion.
Lynn did not quit and three consecutive pass interference calls against the Eagles helped move the ball to the 12-yard line with about 90 seconds to play. Three straight standout plays from the defense shut down the last ditch effort of Lynn. On first down, Ari Bowman broke up a pass. On second down, William Milner, stopped the Lynn quarterback from scoring and also held him short of the first down marker. On third down, Lynn spiked the ball to stop the clock with 1:06 left setting up a 4th and 1. On fourth down, Jackson Burton stopped the Bear runner and the celebration began. ACA ran out the rest of the clock and took home their first win of the season.
The running game was outstanding as both David Ortiz-Ramirez and AC Walters ran for more than 100 yards on the night. Ortiz-Ramirez finished with 187 yards on 20 carries and a touchdown while Walters had 140 yards on 22 attempts and found the end zone three times. Walters completed three passes for 37 yards hitting Bryant Swindle twice for 25 yards and Ortiz-Ramirez once for 12 yards. On defense, William Milner led the way with 11 tackles while Lane Smith, TJ Merritt, and Ari Bowman each had five tackles. Blake Shaw had two sacks while Darrius Gardner had an interception.
Next week, the Eagles start Area play as they host Trinity.