ACU Football fights hard but comes up short in week one loss.

Ben Clark - Sports Information Director

The Arizona Christian University Firestorm football team was fired up and ready to go in their week one matchup against the Webber International Warriors. The Warriors, however, scored touchdowns in their first three possessions and took an early 21-0 lead in the first quarter.  The Firestorm responded, and Quinta Thomas ran into the endzone from 19 yards out with 46 seconds left in the first quarter to cut into the Warriors lead.  

The second quarter was a defensive battle by both teams, with the only score of the quarter coming just before halftime.  Webber moved the ball 45 yards in four plays and finished the drive with a 3 yard run by Darius Page making the score at halftime 28-7.

When the teams came out to start the second half, a lightning storm forced the teams and crowd to take shelter for more than an hour.  After the delay, the Warriors put up two more touchdowns to increase their lead to 42-7.  Both Firestorm possessions in the third quarter ended in punts. 

The Firestorm continued to battle into the 4th quarter.  Gerrit Groenewold took over as quarterback and scored two rushing touchdowns for ACU.  Webber added one more touchdown in the quarter, and ended the game with a 48-21 victory over the Firestorm.  

Arizona Christian would end the night with over 300 yards of total offense, 147 rushing and 162 passing.  P.J. Sparks led ACU in rushing with 56 yards, Scottie Hutchinson caught 8 passes for 64 yards, and Tim Clayton led the defense with 12 tackles.  

Next week the Firestorm travel to New Mexico to take on the Western New Mexico Mustangs, Saturday at 11:00am Arizona time.  Check the website for links to the stats, audio and video for the game.