By Kevin Eckleberry

kevin.eckleberry@lagrangenews.com

LAGRANGE – The Lafayette Christian School Cougars are still searching for win number one, but head coach Nate Shaw saw some positive signs in the latest loss.

In Friday’s game against an elite Crisp Academy team, Lafayette Christian hung tough for much of the way before falling 60-34.

“They really have a nice team, good athletes, and they’re disciplined, hard-hitting,” Shaw said. “And our kids responded. The harder Crisp hit, the harder we bowed up and hit back. That was really nice to see.”

When the game was finished, Shaw liked the attitude of the players.

“It wasn’t, we played well and we lost,” Shaw said. “It was we played well, and we’re mad that we didn’t win, which is the way you want to see them come off the field.”

A bright spot was the performance of an offense that accumulated more than 300 yards and scored five touchdowns.

Junior quarterback Landon Whitley, who is having a big season, ran for 174 yards on 22 carries with a pair of touchdowns.

Whitley also completed 6-of-12 passes for 134 yards with two touchdowns.

Whitley’s two touchdown passes went to freshman Cason Firth (47 yards) and Nathan Hudson (19 yards).

Jacob Lueken added a touchdown run for the Cougars. Freshman Ben Dixon ran for 41 yards on eight carries.

Another freshman, Nathan Karvelas, had two catches for 53 yards.

Many of the Cougars’ top players are either freshmen or sophomores.

“Our freshman are beginning to contribute,” Shaw said. “And we’ve got some sophomore offensive linemen who don’t get a lot of pub, but they’ve been effective.”

After three straight home games, Lafayette Christian will be on the road on Friday against CrossPointe Christian.

“Maybe being away from home will take a little bit of the pressure off and we can build off what we have,” Shaw said. “We came out of the game pretty healthy, so we’re happy about that.”