GARDENDALE—It was hard-nosed, smash-mouth football at its finest on Friday night at Moncrief Park in Gardendale.

The Tabernacle Christian Torches and the Tuscaloosa Christian Warriors swung at each other like a pair of heavyweight boxers for four quarters.

Both fighters left their mark, but it was Tuscaloosa that rode away with a 60-50 win in the Christian Football Association bout.

The Warriors (3-2, 2-1), led by senior quarterback Preston Pate, simply kept the chains moving and made the critical plays down the stretch. Pate made, perhaps, the play of the night when he rumbled 11 yards to the end zone on a fourth-and-4 late in the contest.

His fifth and final touchdown and 2-point conversion of the night put the visitors ahead by 10 with little over a minute remaining.

“Their quarterback was quite an athlete and we just could not make a stop with that kid, and the difference in the game was our defense just couldn’t make the big play,” said Tabernacle Christian head coach Keith Dabbs.

Pate did damage with his legs (90 yards rushing to go with two touchdowns) and his arm, as he completed 10 of his 11 attempts for 146 yards and three scores.

It was another senior—running back Josh Florence—that inspired the Torches’ offensive attack. Florence was called upon early and often, as he powered his way to 216 yards on the ground to go with five touchdowns. He scored from 1, 7, 1, 3 and 2 yards out for the home team.

His final score of the evening gave Tabernacle Christian (3-2, 2-1) an opportunity to even things up at 52-all with 5:50 to play, but Micah Miller’s 2-point attempt slid through the fingers of Nisit Sakaria.

That’s when Tuscaloosa took the ball and slowly pushed through an 11-play drive that ended with Pate’s 11-yard score with little over a minute to play. The Warriors converted one third down and two fourth downs on their time consuming drive.

“You always second guess if you come out of a game and you don’t run Josh [Florence] 30 times. You feel like maybe you didn’t get all you could get out of him, so we rode him tonight,” said Dabbs.

The longtime coach also gave Miller, a junior in his second year quarterbacking the Torches’ offense, more opportunities in the second half.

On the third snap of the third quarter, Miller absorbed the pass rush and floated a 29-yard touchdown to Sakaria, pulling Tabernacle to within six points. Miller finished 6-of-15 through the air for 101 yards and the touchdown. He also ran in a touchdown from a yard out.

Dabbs was positive following the hard-fought loss.

“Everything is still there to host a playoff game, and it’s huge to host a playoff game. Right now second place is within our grasp,” he said of Tabernacle’s postseason outlook.

Erik Harris is the Sports Editor of The North Jefferson News. Email him at njnsports@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @jeharris2.