NEWPORT NEWS - In the first ever New South Athletic Conference football game, it was The Apprentice School football team that ended up on the winning side as the Builders blanked South Carolina Central Christian Saturday afternoon, 59-0.
With the win, the Builders improve to 1-2 overall and 1-0 in conference play. The Builders' next conference game will be in three weeks.
Apprentice took the opening kickoff and drove down the field, but the Gladiator defense stood strong, forcing a
Logan Eastman 30-yard field goal that put the Builders in front, 3-0. After a strip sack set the home team up with a short field,
Colby Messe punched it in from a yard out to take a 10-0 lead.
The Builders added two more 1-yard rushing touchdowns early in the second quarter, one by
Malachi Mitchell and one by
Tyreon Taylor that made the score 24-0. The game looked as if it would stay there going into the break, but
Khamarie Trueblood stripped the ball away from a Gladiator and ran it back 65 yards for a 31-0 lead at the half.
Kendall Hunt got things going in the second half, finding
Baker Green for a 13-yard pitch-and-catch before running in a touchdown from three yards out. Hunt added another passing score to
Bradley Hebb in the back of the endzone for a 22-yard touchdown that pushed the lead to 52-0 at the end of the third. Mitchell added one more score from the 2-yard line in the fourth.
Hunt finished the day 15-for-21 for 174 yards and a trio of touchdowns, two through the air. The Builders had seven rushers total 141 yards on the ground.
Defensively, Apprentice forced three turnovers on the day, turning all three into points.
The Builders will be on the road next week when they travel to Methodist. Kickoff next Saturday is set for 1 p.m.
