Russell Christian Academy’s Zach Crain fights for yardage during the Warriors’ game against Sumter Academy Friday.

They needed the win.

Not because it secured a playoff berth, or captured bragging rights for a year, but because it stopped a snowball-turned-snow boulder from continuing further down the hill and gaining even more mass.

Entering Friday’s home contest against Sumter Academy, Russell Christian Academy had lost 14 straight games dating back to the 2013 season. So when the clock ticked to zero and the Warriors were winners, 30-22, there was both a sense of jubilation and relief.

“We were ecstatic,” said linebacker Drake McKenzie, who led his team with 12 tackles Friday night. “(Alabama Independent School Association) is tough — it’s a lot tougher than what we expected it to be, but it was a good feeling to be a part of.”

It wasn’t a district win, so it didn’t have postseason implications directly. Indirectly, though, getting the first win in nearly two seasons could go a long was in helping RCA (1-4) as it heads into the rest of its area schedule, beginning Friday night at Clarke Prep.

“You always want to win that first one, you just hope to win it earlier than we did,” head coach Nate Ballard said. “There is definitely some relief now that it’s over. Not only was it our first win this season, but it was our first win in AISA as an AISA-member team, so that was a huge deal, too.

“It was a good feeling Friday night. We have three region games left, and we feel like we can compete with a couple of those schools and try to make a playoff appearance.”

Ballard said his team’s rushing game led the way, as Zach Crain tallied 122 yards on 20 carries and had help from McKenzie, Tyler Reeves and Logan Sayers to finish with close to 300 yards on the ground. Only one late fumble helped limit any damage in the turnover margin, and Ballard said the Warriors did a good job controlling the line of scrimmage.

“We’re doing a lot of things better (lately),” Ballard said. “We’re starting to see blocking scheme-wise who we’re supposed to block. Defensively, we’ve kind of bounced around this year between a four- and five-man front, and the boys are starting to figure some things out. They’re getting better at making their read keys, going through their assignment and knowing who they’re supposed to have, and it’s definitely benefitted us staying with the system and getting better working at it.”

McKenzie said he and his teammates were ready to put the losing streak behind them when they stepped onto the field Friday night.

“I feel like everyone showed up to play,” he said. “Everyone felt good. We were healthy, and we had a good mindset, and everyone was ready to get the monkey off our back. We were just tired of everything going the way it was going, so it was a good feeling.”

Crain said the monkey being gone would take a ton of pressure of the team going forward.

“It’ll help our momentum,” Crain said. “We finally have a win and don’t have to think about it as badly as we had been. Now we can focus on playing hard and not having a 14-game losing streak (over our heads).

“It seemed like the whole team had gotten used to the feeling of losing, and we’ve been trying to break it. We finally got the feeling of winning, and I think it will carry on and help us.”

RCA began the season with a 50-8 loss to Wayne Academy, a 26-0 loss to Wilcox Academy and a 48-8 loss to South Choctaw Academy. Crain said the players never seemed to get down during practice, but early in the season, it was evident they had trouble mentally when games got out of hand. In the last couple of weeks, though, he began to sense a change.

“It seemed like people gave up in the first few games, but toward the last few games, everyone was trying as hard as they could,” Crain said. “We’ve been staying with it the last few weeks, and against Chambers Academy (a 44-16 loss in Week 4), we were down 30 points but were giving it our all until the last minute.”

Win or lose, Ballard always says after games that his team will have to continue to improve. Going forward, he said blocking and tackling would be a focal point for improvement after reviewing Friday’s game film.

“We blocked Friday but didn’t necessarily block the right people, and that comes with experience,” Ballard said. “Our defense just didn’t tackle very well. We had the quarterback for a loss a couple of times and just let him get out, and we had some receivers tackled after they caught the ball, and they just slipped through and got extra yardage. That’s the two basic fundamental things we have to do, block and tackle.”

For McKenzie, improvement goes beyond simple fundamentals: It’s a mindset to which everyone on the team must adhere.

“Everyone has to be together and play as a team, not be individuals,” McKenzie said.

Kickoff at Clarke Prep will be at 7 p.m. Friday.