High School Sports

JACKSONVILLE — Week after week, it was the same thing for Jacksonville Christian. Not long into the Thunder's 2007 season, the losses began to pile up and continued on into 2008.

But now, Jacksonville Christian has something else piling up — wins.

With back-to-back victories over Jefferson Christian and Skyline, Jacksonville Christian is in the midst of its first winning streak since 2004, and just around the horizon there could be more.

"Last year, we didn't win at all," junior lineman John Robinson said, "and it felt really good to win and get it off our chest."

JCA picked up the season's first region win (and only second in AHSAA competition) with a 55-18 blowout of Jefferson Christian, then defeated Skyline 42-34, in a non-region game.

With the second half of the region schedule starting Friday night, there's no time to dwell on what was. The Thunder is too busy thinking of this week's opponent, Parkway Christian, and what could be. Of the next four region opponents JCA faces, all but one stands with a 1-2 region record.

A win over Parkway Christian (2-3 overall, 1-2 region) would likely put a playoff berth — JCA's first since moving over from the Christian Conference — squarely in its hands. An evaluation of Class 1A, region 5, shows (should JCA defeat Parkway) the region's fourth playoff spot could very well come down to the Thunder's final region season game against Coosa Christian (2-3, 1-2). Appalachian, Ragland and Victory Christian are looked at as favorites to grab the first three spots.

"We've got a chance," JCA coach Tommy Miller said, "but we'll have to play our best football down the stretch."

Just the thought of being the first in school history to play that extra AHSAA game was more than words could describe for some.

"It's … it," Robinson said. "…I don't know, it'd be unbelievable."

Miller says while his team has always kept a good, up-beat attitude throughout the season, their recent success has given them a new-found level of confidence. And considering how they earned their recent win, it's hard to see how anyone couldn't be confident.

To earn their most recent win, Jacksonville Christian was faced with a critical fourth quarter where it had to pull off two things: Punch in an insurance touchdown and hold Skyline out of the end zone. And all the while, do it without the services of three starters.

Of those were Jacob Bollinger, who was sidelined with a bone bruise after being tackled into the bench, and two-way starter Matt Crook, who broke his collarbone.

"We don't have two at tight end and two at right tackle," Miller said. "We had people all shuffled around.

"We had a 110-pound tight end out there blocking with everything he had, and we were able to push that ball in and score to go up by eight. … that was a lot of heart in the fourth quarter."