COMMANDERS WILL DEFEND 2A TITLE
LEBANON -- Friendship Christian rolled to an impressive 27-6 victory over Boyd Buchanan Friday night, earning a return trip to the Class 2A BlueCross Bowl next weekend in Cookeville.

The Commanders won their 10th consecutive game, improving to 12-1, and held an explosive Buc team in check most of the night as Cale Mitchell recovered a fumble and Steven Hollis picked off a pass.

"Starting the year, our defense was young and inexperienced," said FCS head coach John McNeal. "That was a great effort tonight by those guys tonight. We thought we'd have to put up some points, but to hold Boyd to six was huge."

Friendship took the opening kickoff and drove 80 yards on nine plays as A.J. Long found Stefan remus in the back of the endzone for an 8-yard scoring pass with 7:52 left in the first quarter.

The Bucs answered with a three-yard run off tackle for a TD by Rance Harden, but the PAT snap sailed high, leaving the Commanders on top 7-6.

Long tacked on a pair of one-yard quarterback sneaks in the second quarter, the second right at the halftime horn as FCS took a 20-6 lead into intermission.

The Commanders put the game on ice with a 30-yard TD pass from Long to Mitchell with 1:08 to go in the third quarter.

Hollis ran for nearly 200 yards on a series of quick-hitting blasts and speedy runs around end. "The o-line and the wide receivers were getting the blocks," Hollis said, "it was a good job all the way around."

The Commanders will play Adamsville in the 12 Noon game Saturday at Tennessee Tech for the Class 2A state title.