Faith Christian rallies to beat St. David's to claim state championship

The Faith Christian Patriots took down the St. David's Warriors to claim the NCISAA eight-man state championship and avenge their only loss of the season on Friday night.

On September 7th, the Warriors beat the Patriots by a gaudy 65-14 margin.

That was not the story on Friday night, as the Faith defense came up with an inspired performance this time around, leading the Patriots to a 24-20 win when it mattered most.

St. David's looked like they were ready to repeat their winning performance from September early on, as touchdown passes from James Talton to Ford Everett and Robert Batchelder put the Warriors ahead 14-0 early in the third quarter.

From there, Faith found another gear.

A Sam Mills touchdown pass to Zach Warrick brought the Patriots within 14-6.

Then, Shaikey Hardy ran it in from four yards out to cut it to 14-12.

It looked like those failed point-after attempts could be costly when St. David's scored another touchdown when Cooper Crosby caught a 64-yard pass from Talton, but the Warriors missed a conversion of their own to keep this a one possession game.

The Patriots worked back into the game with a 47-yard run by Hardy, but again failed to tie the game on the two-point conversion.

A defensive stop got them the ball back, and they took full advantage when Mills scored on a keeper from 10 yards out to put the Patriots ahead 24-20.

The Faith defense had stiffened in the second half to get the offense back in it, and they sealed the deal with an interception to secure the win and the championship.