Photo by Nolan Ruth
By Nolan Ruth
X – @RealNolanRuth
WEATHERFORD— Recently, Parker County has had a shortage of in-county rivalries. One could argue the case for Aledo and Azle, however that series has been very one sided. Ten years ago, the Weatherford Christian Lions and Azle Christian Crusaders met for the last time.
As two premier six-man programs in TAPPS, one could argue that it was a travesty to lose such a rivalry that has yet to be named. On Friday night, the two met in Weatherford to revive the once great rivalry.
EDITOR’S NOTE: After hearing many suggestions, I have decided to name this rivalry “The Contention for the Faith.” An allusion to Jude 3 when Jude calls believers to “contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. ESV”
The 2025 Contention for the Faith began very well for Weatherford Christian, but turned in the favor of Azle Christian quickly, leading to a 53-8 mercy rule win with 7:11 remaining in the third quarter.
“I feel really good,” Azle Christian head coach Chad Geeslin said after the game. “The Faustina loss was a real wake up call for us. It really changed a lot. We knew that we had to be a better football team. They have athletes, so we knew we had to execute. I tell them every week that good elite football teams finish games and that’s what we did tonight.”
The Lions got a great start as Will Muhlenkamp was in perfect position to intercept a pass on the first play from scrimmage and take it in for the early touchdown to put the Lions up 8-0.
From there it was all Crusaders. The Azle offense did not turn the ball over again, and scored every other time it possessed the ball. Gage Anderson was the one to put the Crusaders on the board with an eight yard run to tie the game before the end of the first quarter.
The Crusaders then scored four unanswered touchdowns in the second quarter to get within range of the 45-point mercy rule.
After a big defensive stand at the two yard line, the Azle offense drove all the way down the field with Jakob “Zeke” Rollins capping off the drive with his first touchdown of the game. Then Grayson Smith began his big game with a long touchdown run, cutting through the Lion defense on his way to pay dirt.
“He’s a special kid,” Geeslin said about his playmaker. “He’s one of those kids that you love to coach because he’s going to give you everything he’s got every play. But I’ll tell you this, he loves the Lord more than anything. When I came in here that was the biggest thing, and he leads a lot of that.”
Then it was quarterback Nemo Crowell making a big play by rolling out and finding Jaxon Durham in heavy traffic. Durham then turned and stretched for the goal line for the fourth straight touchdown, and third in the second quarter.
Smith then made another big play with Weatherford threatening in the red zone. He tracked down a floating pass, picked it off and raced all the way to the end zone untouched to bring the score to 40-8 at the end of the first half.
The Crusaders tried to get an onside kick to speed up the game, but were unable to recover. However, the defense went right back to work and forced a three-and-out. Crowell then proceeded to make an incredible scrambling play, avoiding a sack and finding Gavin Montez in the end zone from 12 yards out.
Smith then made one more big play by recovering a fumble deep in Lion territory, setting up Rollins to score his second touchdown and end the game by mercy rule at a score of 53-8.
Azle Christian improves to 3-1 with the win and will host Fort Worth Temple Christian next Friday. Weatherford Christian, meanwhile, falls to 0-4 on the season, and will travel across the metroplex to play Rockwall Heritage next week.
