By Justin Jarrett
LowcoSports.com
For the better part of the 21st century, Hilton Head Christian Academy has boasted the preeminent private school football program in the Lowcountry, but this has developed into a rough season for the Eagles, culminating with an unexpected quarterback change at midseason.
As the lopsided losses began to mount, it was looking bleak on Bluffton Parkway. The star quarterback was dismissed from the program, the ground game was nonexistent, and the defense was beaten and battered.
Meanwhile, a young and talented John Paul II team was gaining momentum, piling up rushing yards and wins ahead of schedule after winning just one game a year ago.
For the better part of a month, we talking heads who keep folks abreast of the goings-on in the local sports scene wondered aloud whether the tipping point was approaching.
Our speculation was premature.
Ron Peduzzi’s team turned in its most complete performance of the season Friday night in Hardeeville, spoiling the Golden Warriors’ senior night and maintaining their stranglehold on the rivalry with a 35-21 win, HHCA’s 10th straight in the series.
“We had a lot of people make big plays,” HHCA senior Kres Langhals said. “Coach always says big-time players make big-time plays, and we made a lot of big plays at the right times tonight. It was good to finish a close game and beat our rivals.”
No one has come up bigger than Langhals, and no one has felt more of the pressure to maintain HHCA’s status as a perennial power.
After doing yeoman’s work as an undersized running back working behind an undersized offensive line in a system built around the pass throughout his career, Langhals was thrust into the frying pan and asked to take over the reins of the offense right when the season was sitting on the precipice.
Oh, yeah, on top of that, his dad is the head of school. No pressure.
Langhals’ debut as QB1 was a mixed bag — he passed for 390 yards and three touchdowns but threw five interceptions in a lopsided loss at Bulloch Academy — and three more interceptions against struggling First Baptist didn’t inspire confidence despite another 331 passing yards, three more touchdown passes, and a 33-6 win.
Then the Eagles got the break they needed. Their Oct. 17 game against Beaufort Academy was wiped off the schedule because BA had to complete its suspended game at Colleton Prep.
The opportunity to hit the pause button and go back to the drawing board to tweak the offense to fit around Langhals as the centerpiece was just what Peduzzi and his staff needed, and the result was HHCA’s most complete offensive performance of 2025.
Not only did Langhals have his best game yet through the air, completing 20-of-26 passes for 308 yards with two touchdowns and only one interception, but he also rushed for 112 yards and two touchdowns to lead a season-best rushing effort from the Eagles. Senior Hudson Baker, once Langhals’ understudy in the backfield, also had a breakout game, rushing for 100 yards on 12 carries and catching two passes for 69 yards, including a 65-yard touchdown after Langhals hit him in full stride.
Still, it took everything the Eagles had to retain the belt, so to speak.
“We had some challenges,” Peduzzi said. “They battled and kept the game close and kept coming at us with that triple option.”
Indeed, the duo of junior quarterback Alan Wolf and freshman phenom Jadon Inabinett punched back all night, and Merrick Baroni’s kickoff return touchdown pulled the Golden Warriors within 28-21 and renewed hope among the home crowd.
That hope will not soon fade. John Paul II has arrived, and with an impressive corps of young talent and more on the way from a powerhouse middle school program, we talking heads will soon wonder again when the scales will tip.
And the Eagles will be waiting to try to prove us wrong again.
Justin Jarrett is the sports editor of The Island News and the founder of LowcoSports.com. He was the sports editor of the Island Packet and the Beaufort Gazette for 6½ years. He has a passion for sports and community journalism and a questionable sense of humor.
