Christian Collegiate can't complete perfect season, falls in 8-man finals
JACKSON -- Tallulah Academy's Mason Todd wanted to go out with a bang.
Well he did.
Todd accounted for five touchdowns to lead Tallulah Academy (La.) past Christian Collegiate 34-25 to claim the MAIS 8-man state championship on Thursday afternoon at Millsaps College's Harper Davis Field.
It is the Trojans' (12-1) second state championship in school history and first since 1992.
"The goal today was to jump out ahead and make them (Christian Collegiate) to play from behind," Tallulah coach Bo Barten said. "We did just that and our defense did a good job of containing their quarterback. Last time he torched us on the edge and that is what we needed to do is not give him the edge."
Tallulah jumped out to a 12-0 lead on CCA in the first quarter when Todd connected with Dakota Cone on a 27-yard touchdown pass for the game's first score and then hit Brice Wood on a 15-yard pass with 2:02 left in the opening quarter.
Christian Collegiate scored on a 2-yard touchdown pass from Devan Roberts to Micah Williams with 20 seconds left before half time.
"They did a great job of following their game plan defensively," Christian Collegiate coach Joe Roberts said. "They just crowded the box more and didn't let us get to the edge like last time."
Devan Roberts led the Bulldogs (12-1) offensively completing 16 of 25 passes for 188 yards with a touchdown. He also added 74 yards rushing on 16 carries and scored on a 2-yard touchdown run with 5:58 left in the fourth quarter that cut the Tallulah lead to 26-19.
Running back Trey Clolinger added two 1-yard touchdown runs for Christian Collegiate.
"I am proud of my guys for fighting back when we got down early," Roberts said. "We obviously came up short today, but it gives us something to build on next year."
Todd led Tallulah with 244 yards passing with three touchdowns and 122 yards rushing with two touchdowns.
CCA defeated the Trojans 46-38 on Sept. 25.
This story was originally published November 19, 2015 at 3:46 PM with the headline "Christian Collegiate can't complete perfect season, falls in 8-man finals ."