SIDELINE SCENE: CFCA's Judah Stone proves tough to tackle

John Davis, the first-year head coach at CFCA, can put a value in yards on the cost that graduating seniors and transfers had on the program he inherited after accepting the job.

In addition to the seniors who graduated from the Eagles’ 2014 team — which put together the best season in program history — Davis arrived on campus and had to account for the departures of high-quality players such as Bradley Dos Santos, Gehrig Chambless and Ajay Green.

“We lost 3,000 yards of offense from last year,” Davis says matter-of-factly. “We needed to find somebody who we could say, ‘OK — we’ll put the offense on his back and start to grow it, especially with a new system.’”

As it would turn out, it was a noticeable drop off in CFCA’s first game — a 20-0 shutout loss to rival Legacy Charter (where Chambless transferred).

But something profound happened between that loss and the Eagles’ Week Two date with St. John Lutheran — what would end up being a 32-0 victory. Davis and his staff identified its player to lean on, and senior Judah Stone has been on an absolute tear — the two-way player has amassed 840 yards on 80 carries and 11 touchdowns this fall.

“Judah, he fits what we’re doing perfectly and he practices like a madman,” Davis says. “The game of football is important to him. It shows, and it kind of rubs off on the rest of the guys. He’s a high-character guy, as well.”

Stone saw the void in both leadership and production created with some of the departures from last fall’s squad and decided to seize that opportunity.

“I was anticipating that I could shine and have a breakout year,” Stone says.

Neither he nor his coach are particularly surprised with his production. Davis says that, even reviewing film from last year’s season, Stone was a consistent big-gain rusher who just did not get as many touches.

Since that opening loss, CFCA has won five consecutive games and is in second place in its division — ahead of Legacy, which has lost twice. Looking back, Davis believes not having a preseason kickoff classic hurt his Eagles but that they have shored up their problems, anyway.

“We’ve gotten better every week,” Davis said. “Legacy was our (metaphorical) kickoff classic, so you’ve seen a lot of those problems and mistakes that we’ve made, we’ve cleaned them up since then.”

Stone believes the new coaching staff, which had the tough task of following a staff under outgoing coach Michael Bonneville, who was well-liked and successful in its one season at the helm, has won him and his teammates over.

“They bring a different level of intensity — coach Davis has really kept us on our toes, and I think that’s great,” Stone said. “We always keep pushing.”