The championship game for the 6 Man Division I bracket of the Texas Christian Athletic League will be decided at 12:30 PM, Saturday, Nov. 26 between Faith Christian and Texas Christian. It was a four-team tournament that also featured Mount Carmel Academy and Clear Lake Christian School. Three of those schools, Texas Christian, Mount Carmel Academy and Clear Lake Christian are from Houston. But the best team is the Faith Christian Lions, who are from El Paso. They are 8-1 this season and they had the best record in Division I of TCAL.
Faith Christian advanced to the state championship because their semifinals game on Nov. 19 against Clear Lake Christian School was forfeited. It’s the third time this season that the Faith Christian Lions have won a game because of a forfeiture. Their two other wins by forfeit were against Jesus Chapel on Sept. 2 and Latter Rain Christian on Sept. 9. So while the Lions may be contending for the state champion because of luck, it shouldn’t be surprising if they win.
The games they have played were high scoring and they were usually on the winning side. The only game they weren’t was a loss on Sept. 15 on the road against Fort Hancock 45-40. They won despite strong defensive efforts from senior Patrick Rodriguez, who had 17 tackles, senior Andres Perez, who had 14 tackles and two sacks and freshman David Juardo, who had two interceptions and one sack.
It turned out to be their lowest point total in a game. On Sept. 23 they beat Fort Davis at home 84-53, on Sept. 30 they beat Dell City on the road 71-32 and on Oct. 14 they played Fort Hancock again at home and won 52-44. They have scored over 90 points twice.
In their first game of the season on Aug. 26, they won at Immanuel Christian 95-70. Senior quarterback Rafael Rucobo did it all in the game with eight touchdown passes and three rushing touchdowns. On Oct. 29, they beat Midessa HomeSchool at home 91-45. Rucobo threw for 324 yards and eight touchdowns and senior wide receiver Pablo Cortez had 216 receiving yards and five touchdown receptions. Defensively, Rodriguez had 18 tackles and senior Manuel Cortez returned two interceptions for a touchdown.
Their opponent for the state championship is the Texas Christian Tigers, who has a considerably worse record than Faith Christian at 5-4. They won their semifinal over Mount Carmel Academy 58-47, which was a rematch against the Bulldogs. They lost the first game in overtime 50-46 on on Sept. 30. They have played some quality opponents though and lost to all of them. On Sept. 2 they lost at home to the Fort Bend Chargers HomeSchool 45-38 and they lost by forfeit to Baytown Christian on Sept. 9. They also got blown out at Emery/Weiner on Oct. 15 52-7. Their wins were on Sept. 23 at home against Sanchez 70-26, 65-43 over BVCHEA on Oct. 7, by forfeit over West Columbia Charter on Oct. 21 and at home against Atonement Academy on Oct. 28 61-14.
Sophomore Kareem Lightbourne is the Tigers’ all-purpose player. He has 22 touchdown passes and five interceptions and he also leads the team with nine rushing touchdowns. O’Brien Pierce is a two-way player with 33 catches, 506 receiving yards and nine touchdown receptions. He also returns kicks and punts and he has three interceptions, two of which he returned for a touchdown.
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