Aydan White ’20 has been hauling in passes from his quarterback since the two were in elementary school.
It shows.
With no signs of first-game rust, the chemistry between Aydan and Navy Shuler ’20 was especially on point Friday. The seniors connected for four touchdowns through the air (13, 21, 22, and 69 yards) and Christ School football made a statement with a 35-20 home win over nine-time state champion University Christian (Fla.).
Navy completed 15 of his 26 attempts for 211 yards, lofting his first touchdown of the season to Greenie newcomer Lex Long ’21 from 40 yards out at the 6:10 mark of the first quarter. Aydan accounted for 146 receiving yards and made a critical fourth-quarter interception to ice the season opener for Christ School (1-0) in front of an impressive Fayssoux Field crowd.
Pierce Hammonds ’22 ran hard all night, finishing with 83 rushing yards. Two other players making their debuts for the Greenies, Cade Mintz ’21 and Charlie Browder ’21, recovered fumbles.
Head coach Nick Luhm’s postgame speech was short, but sweet. “1-0, baby. Lets go!” Luhm exclaimed to the Greenies’ delight.
“It’s a special feeling to be 1-0 and start the season with a win like this,” Coach Luhm said. “I tip my cap (to University Christian). They play the game the right way and we knew they would be a challenge physically. Sure, there are a lot of things we need to clean up. But we did a lot of good things, too. We got better tonight, and that’s been our goal since the preseason, to get better every day. We’ll enjoy this one over the weekend and get back to work Monday.”
Christ School gave up Friday’s first touchdown. But the Greenies never trailed again after Henry Duggins ’20 followed up Lex’s touchdown catch with the first of five successful extra points to make the score, 7-7, at the 6:10 mark of the first quarter.
“They were a very good team. We had different people step up on offense and defense all night,” Aydan said. “If we keep playing like that, I think we can win a state championship.”
Christ School is back at Fayssoux next Friday for a 7 p.m. game against Cabarrus County.