Poor tackling in the first half doomed Unaka on Friday night as Cosby ran out to a 27-6 halftime lead and held on for a 27-14 victory over the Rangers on Friday night at Goddard Field.

“A lot of that (poor tackling) probably comes from the fact we can’t hit in practice,” stated Rangers head coach Steve McKinney. “We can’t afford to have anybody get hurt in practice and we have a lack of depth that contributes to not wrapping up real well. I can’t say enough about these kids. They fight and bust their butts every day.”

Cosby’s junior quarterback Andrew Lillard completed seven of nine passes in the first half for 165 yards and a pair of touchdowns as the Eagles rolled to a 27-6 halftime advantage. On the Eagles first possession they traveled 69 yards on 10-plays with tailback Darien Johnson capping the drive with a nine yard run. Eduardo Gonzalez booted the point after for Cosby.

Unaka (0-2) had success on its first drive going 76 yards on eight plays with junior quarterback Blake King hitting Blake Isaacs on a 43 yard touchdown pass down the home sideline. The PAT failed and the Rangers trailed 7-6.

Cosby’s next possession was a two play drive with junior tight end Ty Way plowing through and over would be Ranger tacklers on his way to a 56 yard scoring pass that with the successful extra point gave the Eagles a 14-6 lead.

The Rangers next possession saw them drive to the 19 yard line where they stalled on four straight incompletions. Cosby then drove 81 yards on 12 plays with Lillard avoiding several missed tackles on a five yard scoring run to give the Eagles a 20-6 lead.

Once again the Rangers could not move and King shanked an 18 yard punt that gave Cosby possession at the Rangers 35 yard line. Lillard completed a 27 yard touchdown toss to Isaiah Benjamin to make it 27-6 at the break.

For Unaka in the first half King completed nine of 20 for 125 yards and finished with 216 yards on 19-of-37 passing with two interceptions.

“That one in the end zone was disappointing for sure,” McKinney said. “But I thought our quarterback and receivers did a good job. We had two freshmen score touchdowns.”

With just over five minutes in the contest King found Nick Bowers on a five yard touchdown pass for Unaka and then connected with Dakota Gallimore for the deuce and a 27-14 contest.

From there Cosby (1-0) ran off better than three minutes with the Rangers taking over at the 27 yard line and saw King connect on a pair of passes to Devon Jarrett for 21 yards but time ran out on Unaka.

Cosby 27-14

Cosby 14 13 0 0 – 27

Unaka 6 0 0 8 – 14

Scoring Summary

First Quarter

C – Johnson 9 run (Gonzalez kick) 7:00

U – Isaacs 43 pass from King (run failed) 3:44

C – Way 56 pass from Lillard (Gonzalez kick) 2:46

Second Quarter

C – Lillard 5 run (kick failed) 2:08

C – Benjamin 27 pass from Lillard (Gonzalez kick) :28.2

Fourth Quarter

U – Bowers 5 pass from King (King pass to Gallimore) 5:27