Aaron Winchester had a hand in all five Pisgah touchdowns as the varsity football team defeated Landmark Christian 38-14 on Friday night in the opening round of the GHSA playoffs. The senior quarterback totaled 362 yards of offense including four touchdown passes and one touchdown run.
The Patriots will now travel to Savannah on Friday, November 28th to face top seeded Calvary Day in the second round.
Landmark fumbled on their first possession, which was recovered by Max Miller. Winchester found Ben Miller for a 14-yard scoring pass to put the Patriots up 7-0 early. On the next War Eagles drive Jacob Cendoya forced yet another fumble that was recovered by Patrick Ainsworth. Again, the Patriots drove straight down the field but settled for an 18 yard field goal from Chase Clark gave the Patriots a 10-0 lead early in the second quarter.
After the Patriots defense forced a forced a punt, Winchester hit Miller again on a 48 yard strike that gave the Patriots a 17-0 lead. The Eagles would score a touchdown before the half to cut the lead to 17-7 at the break.
After the Patriots punted on their first possession of the second half, Landmark scored to cut the lead to 17-14, but that is as close as the War Eagles would come. After the two teams exchanged punts, Winchester hit Jacob Greene on a 27 yard touchdown pass to extend the lead to 24-14. On the ensuing kickoff, Landmark fumbled and John O’Connor recovered for the Patriots. Wasting no time, Winchester struck again on the very next play floating a beautiful pass on a fade route to Connor Richey who made a tremendous catch in the end zone.
A Nicky Piccapietra interception in the end zone set up Pisgah’s last touchdown - a seven yard run by Winchester.
The Patriot offense racked up 418 yards on the night. Winchester finished 16-of-20 for 237 passing, to go along with 21 carries for 125 yards. Miller had 121 combined rushing and receiving yards with two touchdowns. Richey added 50 receiving yards and a score, and Greene had 55 all-purpose yards and a score.
The No. 9 seeded Patriots, who were the only higher-seeded team to win on Friday night, will now face the daunting challenging of taking out No. 1 Calvary Day. The Cavaliers advanced to the second round with a 26-7 win over Christian Heritage.
