The Landrum football team tried to stir up some Halloween magic on Friday night. The Cardinals came out in all black. The stands were filled with fans dressed in black.

At times the Cardinal offense was scary good, but the Landrum came up short in its chase for a region championship&bsp; since 2005.

The Cardinals scored and scored and scored, but unfortunately, the Christ Church offense just had a few more big plays in its trick-or-treat bag en route to a 57-26.

Despite the score, the game started off as a defensive struggle in the first quarter.&bsp; The first possession for each team ended in punts and the second possession of each team ended in lost fumbles. With 5:20 left in the first quarter, the Cavaliers were driving and a completed pass on the Landrum three-yard-line met a thunderous hit, resulting in a Brandon Cannon fumble recovery. On Landrums next possession, the Cardinals were driving before a Cannon fumble at the 22-yard-line of Christ Church.

The defensive back and forth quickly ended, however. On the next Cavalier drive quarterback Hunter Townes throws a 64-yard touchdown for the first score of the game with 30 seconds left in the first quarter.

Landrum answered that score in the first minutes of the second quarter when Cannon connected with Tyler Logan for a 70-yard touchdown strike. Christ Church scored two more touchdowns at 6:03 and 3:20 to take a 21-7 lead into the half.

The start of the second half was disastrous for Landrum.

On the first play of the second half, the Cavaliers recovered a bad snap on the Cardinal 21-yard-line. Two plays later, Townes throws a 21-yard touchdown to Bennett Nalley. Landrum was forced to punt on its next series and on the first play from the line of scrimmage, Townes drops back and connects with Nalley again on a 60-yard touchdown.

Turnovers were costly for the Cardinals on Friday night.

You cant win a championship against a quality opponent making the mistakes and turnovers we had, Landrum coach Russell Mahaffey said.

Aside from those mistakes the Cardinals played hard and put up a fight.

Cannon passed for 344 yards and had two touchdown passes as well as two rushing touchdowns. Logan had 180 yards receiving and caught both Cannon touchdown passes. The Cardinals are now awaiting word on who and where theyll play in the first round of the state playoffs.

I just wanted this so bad for them, Mahaffey said. Now we just have to regroup and come back next week.