Garrett Crowder and Alden Rhian were both instrumental to their respective team’s first win of the season last Friday night.
Crowder had 150 yards and three touchdowns on offense and 17 tackles on defense in Sacred Heart’s 45-42 win over Mount Olive, and Rhian rushed for 176 yards and three touchdowns with two pass breakups on defense in PCS’ 52-14 win over East Rankin Academy.
The two seniors are our Week 10 Sports601 Hattiesburg Co-Players of the Week.
Sacred Heart improved to 1-8 on the year thanks in large part to Crowder’s effort on both sides of the ball. The Crusaders raced out to a 31-6 lead on Mount Olive and were able to fend off a Pirate comeback, picking up win No. 1 on senior night at Sacred Heart’s Athletic Complex.
“We wanna win every game, but it being senior night, that carried a lot of it and really made us wanna work,” Crowder said. “You can’t lose on your senior night and last home game. You gotta put it to it. I think that was a lot of encouragement having those people come out and see us. It really got us excited and pumped up to win.”
Crowder called it his best game of the season and added that he couldn’t have done it alone.
“The offensive line did great blocking. They were really working the defensive line and opening gaps for me and gave me a lot of cutbacks to work off of. Defensively, my teammates just turned their back to me, and I was there to finish the job. All in all, it was just a good team effort.”
Crowder and the Crusaders will be back in action Friday at Salem (1-8), and they’ll close out the 2018 season next week at Stringer (9-1).
With Rhian leading the way on the ground, PCS also broke into the win column last Friday night. The Bobcats jumped out to a 22-0 first quarter lead on East Rankin Academy and didn’t look back from there, cruising to their first win of 2018 and Derek White’s first as PCS coach.
“He [Rhian] had a big night,” White said. “He’s been that constant, kinda like that farmer that always shows up to work every day and does what he’s supposed to do. He gave us everything he had, and it’s good to see him have a big night.”
Rhian wasn’t even 100 percent in Friday’s contest, as he had been dealing with a high ankle sprain and a strained LCL (knee) a week or two leading up to the game.
“One of my runs I kinda let up at the end because it was hurting a little bit, but it wasn’t that bad,” Rhian said. “I could deal with it. Seems like I was seeing the holes a lot better, but I think that came with the o-line blocking better than they have been all year.”
Rhian and the Bobcats will close out their season Friday night at home against MRA (10-0).
NOTE: Technically, PCS is now 2-8 and not 1-9 after it was discovered that Adams County Christian played an ineligible player in their 40-7 win over the Bobcats on Aug. 31. The Rebels were later forced to forfeit the win, according to White.
