In the team huddle following Providence Christian’s 37-14 home win over Ariton on Friday night, quarterback Craig Pittman hollered, ‘Thank you defense, thank you defense.’” The acknowledgement was certainly deserved. The defense pitched a shutout in the second half and Pittman did more than his part offensively as the Eagles moved into second place with the tiebreaker in Class 2A, Region 2 behind unbeaten Cottonwood.
Providence is now 5-1 overall and 3-1 in the region, while Ariton is 3-3 overall and 3-1 in the region. “I think they’re a playoff team, I really do,” Providence coach Kenny Keith said of Ariton. “To get the win against them is huge for us.
” It looked like it was going to be an uphill battle early on for Providence. Ariton scored on its first possession in impressive fashion, pounding the ball down the field behind a dominating offensive line during a 17-play, 62-yard drive to score when Wells Ganey went over the right side from 3 yards out. Ganey also scored the 2-point conversion for the 8-0 lead.
There was only one pass attempt in the initial drive as Ariton appeared to be a well-oiled machine with its ground attack that the Eagles would have a hard time slowing down. But the Providence defense started to adjust and totally took over in the second half after the Eagles' offense had paved the way for a 23-14 lead at the break. “We made a couple of adjustments on one of their formations they were doing .
.. they were killing us .
.. and we just.
