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American Christian Academy needed just nine plays to put its first playoff game out of reach, as the Patriots cruised to a 65-21 win over Geneva.

In those nine plays, the Patriot offense found the endzone five times, including back-to-back-to-back drives where they needed just one play to score a touchdown.

"It's playoff so it's win or go home, you want to come out and and play your best football and I really thought we came out laser focused and executed across the board," ACA head coach Chris Smelley said."

The Patriots tallied 382 of its 442 total yards and scored eight of its nine touchdowns in the first half.

"We had a great week of practice, we felt good about some of the things that we'd have a chance to to do out here and then our guys made plays," Smelley said. "It was kind of an explosive night for us and to make big plays you know it's executing up front, it's executing blocking down the field, catching and throwing. So across the board offensively we were pretty sharp."

The offensive explosion came from the same sources as it has all season for ACA: seniors quarterback William Sute, running back Brandon Waller and wide receiver/ defensive back Kamari Lassiter.

Sute was deadly accurate in the passing game as he went six-for-nine, totaling 267 yards and four touchdowns. When Sute wasn't finding receivers in the end zone, he was handing the ball off to Waller who was able to bully the Geneva defense in the run game. Waller finished the night with 115 yards and three touchdowns on just five carries.

Waller's production on the ground opened up the passing game and gave Lassiter one-on-one matchups against the Panthers defensive backs, which he exploited. The Georgia commit finished his night with two catches for 95 yards receiving a touchdown and added an interception on defense.

"I thought he made great plays in all three phases of the game," Smelley said. "It's Kamari and you kind of get to the point where you expect him to make those plays, but he had a great night."

For Smelley, he was excited to be back on the field for Friday night's playoff game after he tested positive for COVID-19 and had to go into quarantine.

"I really didn't have too bad of symptoms and I was blessed because, I know not everybody [has] had the same circumstances that I did," Smelley said. "So I guess I'm young and healthy enough that it wasn't too bad and my symptoms were pretty low overall so I feel fine."

The Patriots will be at home again next Friday as they host Mobile Christian.

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