Eagles vie for school's first-ever football title

Palmetto Christian Academy aims for its first SCISA Class A state football championship today when the Eagles play Dillon Christian.

"We're trying to be as businesslike as possible," said coach Jim Daniel, who has led the team to an 8-3 record in his second year at the school after posting a 2-7 mark last year. "That's our mindset in preparation for the game. That's the approach the players and coaches have taken. It's business as usual."

The Eagles took care of business last week, gaining a convincing 62-36 win over Williamsburg Christian to reach the title game. The Eagles racked up 46 first-half points and cruised in the second half to advance to today's game, which will be played at 7:30 p.m. at Wilson Hall in Sumter.

Sophomore quarterback Nick Davis had another big game last week, completing 15 of 19 passes for 175 yards and three scores while running for two more TDs. Chris Gates added 139 yards rushing.

Daniel, who coached for seven seasons at Bishop England before taking the PCA job, has been busy scouting out the opponent.

"They have some big players and have 16 seniors on the roster," he said. "We have five seniors and a lot of freshmen. They have no freshmen on the roster, and they have that championship experience.

"They may be bigger, but we have more speed," he added. "We have some speed that they haven't seen. It's going to be a challenge, but our approach is, 'Hey, it's one more game.' We haven't talked about the other team. We just talk about what we need to do to win the football game."