Dave Hart was excited. His Covenant squad was locked in a tie game with Portsmouth Christian in his first outing as a head coach coming out of the half, so you’ll excuse him if he got a little confused about exactly how to refer to the yard-lines when he was trying to get his kickoff return team to move up after a penalty.
“I was just so excited, I’m a newbie, it’s my first game and ‘the 55-yard line’ just came out,” Hart said. “I didn’t think about it until the ref told me ‘it’s not Canada coach.”
Whether it’s the 55 or the 45, it didn’t matter much because Covenant pulled out a win in Hart’s debut, getting the season started with a 20-7 victory behind a power run game, a stingy defense that came up big in key spots and a tremendous special teams play by eighth grader Rick Weaver.
“It was just exciting to see an eighth grader be our tone setter, and we’ll have that for the rest of the year,” said Covenant senior Austin Llera.
With Covenant holding a 14-7 lead after Llera’s second touchdown run, Weaver burst through the line in the early stages of the fourth quarter and blocked a Portsmouth Christian punt attempt deep in the Patriots’ own territory. He quickly gathered in the ball and rumbled into the end zone untouched.
“I had to just power through,” Weaver said. “I just hit it, grabbed it and took it.”
That put Portsmouth Christian down by a pair of scores with just 10 minutes to play, and with both teams employing a ball control offense, there wasn’t enough time for the Patriots to piece together a rally. Twice in the fourth, Covenant’s defense stepped up, with a knockdown by Quane Washington closing out a fourth down stop that all but sealed the win.
“The whole defense was awesome, they just stepped up today,” said Covenant quarterback Paul Huemme.
Llera pounded the ball between the tackles the entire game, rushing 26 times for 138 yards including his two touchdowns.
“He just keeps going…his legs don’t stop,” Hart said. “He’s known (he was going to get a lot of carries) since we put this offense in. ”
Perhaps most importantly in the Eagles’ new option-oriented offense, he didn’t lose yards on a single carry while running over center nearly the entire afternoon. That allowed Covenant to keep moving forward and test the edges with Huemme and Washington. Huemme, who’d never played quarterback before this year, completed one pass on the day in four attempts, but it was a monster one, a 43-yard toss to Sam Seelman that setup Llera’s first touchdown from a yard out that tied the game at 7-7 late in the first half.
Poorly-timed penalties took a pair of touchdowns from 80 yards out by Washington — one on a run, another on a kickoff return — off the board.
“We had some penalties that cost us some points so we’ve got to get that corrected,” Hart said.
That’s a concern for Monday though. For now, the Eagles are busy enjoying a 1-0 start. They’ll try and stretch it to 2-0 on the road next Saturday at Randolph Macon Academy.
