GAINESVILLE, Ga. — It was a series of firsts for Lanier Christian on Thursday.
With a 27-0 win over Riverside Prep at Maginnis Field, the still-building GAPPS league program private school in Flowery Branch got its first win for first-year coach Joel Lulinski, got its first-ever win over a former GHSA program, and its first-ever win over a team based in Hall County, public or private.
Lulinski hopes the win can help push the program forward with two more GHSA teams -- St. Francis next week and Cross Keys in October -- lined up for the Lightning.
“This is huge for us to come in here and get a win, especially the first (one over a team) in Hall County,” Lulinski said. “It's definitely going to help us. We play (Region 5-A Division 1) St. Francis next and we've never played them before. This should give us confidence to go down there.”
For most of the first half it was a defensive battle as both offenses struggled to make any traction. The Lightning managed just 5 total yards through its first three drives while the Eagles didn’t fare much better getting just 3 total yards.
But LCA began to find some seams late in the second quarter. Drew Kalinauskas found Ben Hargis for a 32-yard gain into Riverside territory. But the drive stalled at the Eagles 38 forcing another punt.
The LCA defense then sacked Riverside quarterback JJ Blackwell for a 10-yard loss, which eventually led to a short Eagles punt giving the Lightning a short field at the Eagles’ 29.
One play later, Kalinauskas and Hargis hooked up again for a 29-yard touchdown pass for a 7-0 LCA lead with just 1:52 left in the half.
The Lightning defense forced a quick Riverside punt on their next possession with 43 seconds left and were poised to extend their lead. Kalinauskas hit Andrew Batusic on a 39-yard strike down to the Riverside 2. But LCA fumbled on the next play with the Eagles recovering at the 1.
The second half was all Lightning (1-2). A rough first half got worse for the Eagles (0-3) who have now dropped 28- straight games going back to 2021.
The Lightning struck again late in the third quarter. Hargis returned a Riverside punt 33 yards to the Eagles 12 and then Kalinauskas and William Martin connected on a 4-yard TD pass for a 14-0 lead.
LCA blew it open in the fourth quarter. Kalinauskas and Batusic struck again for a 9-yard TD pass and then backup QB Kellan Mack hit Batusic for a 39-yard TD pass to push the lead to 27-0 with just over three minutes left.
Kalinauskas and Hargis were a tough tandem to stop for the Eagles.
Kalinauskas, who was the backup coming into the season, missed on his first two attempts before finishing 6-of-10 for 119 yards and 3 TDs. Hargis had 3 catches for 75 yards and the 1 TD and added another 52 yards in returns. Noah Freeman had 10 carries for 60 yards on the ground for LCA.
“Drew really came on and just followed our game plan,” Lulinski said. “He finally hit a couple of throws across the middle and that kind of got his confidence going,
“Ben’s a safety as well as a receiver. He's a punt returner, and he did a little bit of everything today. He definitely made a difference for us.”
Riverside, already hit with a series of early-season injuries to some key players, struggled to move the ball. After the shaky first half, Blackwell went down after making a tackle on defense midway through the third quarter and never returned.
The Eagles had less than 10 yards of total offense for the game and Blackwell completed just one pass for 4 yards.
