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WINNSBORO, La. — Wilkinson County Christian Academy could not overcome the loss of starting quarterback Jacob Sessions and the Rams could not contain Franklin Academy’s high-powered offense as the Cougars came away with a 46-14 win last Friday night in the MAIS 8-Man District 3-1A opener for both teams.

Sessions, who went out of last week’s homecoming loss to Tallulah Academy with a broken collarbone, had surgery on the injury earlier in the day. And with back-up quarterback Tucker Freeman also unable to play with a similar injury, head coach Randy Holloway had to go quarterback-by-committee.

“Cole Partridge started at quarterback. It’s the first time Cole ever took a high school snap. I thought he did a tremendous job. He threw one touchdown pass. Jack Orgeron shared some snaps. Dax Doyle shared some snaps,” Holloway said. “We lost our dual-threat quarterback in Sessions. It’s hard to replace him. Our quarterbacks did an exceptional job.”

WCCA’s defense tried its best to keep the Rams in the game and did so for about a quarter and a half. Franklin Academy (3-3, 1-0) led 14-0 before WCCA scored a touchdown to make it a 14-6 game with 6:04 to go until halftime.

Then the Cougars took over, scoring three touchdowns and converting three two-point conversions over the final 3:17 of the second quarter for a 38-6 halftime lead. Both teams scored a touchdown and a two-point conversion in the third quarter.

“We did not give up. Our kids are resilient. We had a good week of practice,” Holloway said. “We ran into an experienced team in Franklin Academy. They have a lot of team speed. We don’t have a lot of speed on defense. They’re a good football team. An experienced team like that, they’re not going to do anything to hurt themselves,” Holloway said.

WCCA (2-4, 0-1) will travel to St. Joseph, La. to take on Tensas Academy in what will be a district game between the two teams next Friday at 7 p.m.