By Matt Wilson

For the FCT

The Vina Red Devils dropped a 1A Region 8 matchup to the Phillips Bears, 44-14, Friday at home.

The loss brings their record to 1-6 overall on the season with their last win coming Sept. 5 at home against Waterloo.

The opening kickoff against Phillips almost summarizes the way Vina’s season has gone. With the home crowd in the stands and hope mounting, the Bears took the opening kickoff back for a touchdown and things went downhill from there.

Head coach Luke Childers has his team ready each week and they never seem to give up. With that, perhaps he can continue to build on what they have put together this season and continue to strive for the first round playoff berth that Childers expects out of his players.

At the end of the first quarter, the Red Devils were down 16-0, but the Vina players chugged along. Big fourth down plays from Bradley Duncan and Tyler Renfrow kept drives alive for Vina and eventually paid off.

Tyler Renfrow got the Red Devils on the board with a rushing touchdown to make it 16-6. And just before halftime, Bradley Duncan tacked on another rushing touchdown and a two-point conversion to pull Vina to 16-14 going into the locker room.

But what has been a trend for the past few years at Vina is being overpowered and outmatched. And the second half showed that again. It showed that Vina might be on the right track under first-year head coach Childers, but it is going to take some time to build the program back.

A 22-point third quarter for the Bears pulled them away from Vina and showed the current separation between the two programs.

Phillips tacked on one more touchdown in the fourth quarter to make the final score 44-14.

Vina plays on the road at Shoals Christian Oct. 24 and finishes the season at home against Holy Spirit Catholic Oct. 31.