College football has officially hit Santa Rosa County.

Lighthouse Christian College, under the guidance of head coach Ronnie Cottrell, earned its second win of its inaugural season, 31-12, over South Carolina Central Christian College on Saturday on the campus of Lighthouse Private Christian Academy, where the Makos play their home games.

LCC (2-0) stays home next week and hosts Birmingham Prep next Saturday.

Here are three takeaway's from this past weekend's game.

Of the four touchdowns scored on Saturday, three of them came from the hands of players local to Escambia or Santa Rosa County.

Call this opportunity at Lighthouse Christian College, at least in the words of Nate Simmons - from Pace - and Jamarkus Jefferson - from Northview - a "second chance" to play college football after stellar high school careers.

Jefferson scored LCC's first home touchdown in program history on Saturday with a 2-yard run. Simmons scrambled in for a 12-yard run later in the game. Kemontre Current, who played at Milton, hauled in a 30-yard passing touchdown to round out the team's scoring.

It's exactly what LCC head coach Ronnie Cottrell and the rest of the coaching staff wanted: to give local players a chance at high school football. And the players from the 850 area code proved their worth in the Makos' second win of the year.

"We get to prove that the local talent here is good, and we shouldn't be overlooked," Simmons said after the game.

"All of the players in this area, people are overlooked. Everybody wants to get players from the portal, and there's people around here that are better. Starting this school so we can play the sport we love, it's a good thing for us," Jefferson said. "Who doesn't want to score, right? For us local guys to do it, it should open eyes to other coaches at other colleges that we're not just some small school."

Any time a new football program begins at any level, the questions immediately start flowing. But, typically, the most pressing one is: how soon can the team start winning?

In Lighthouse's case, it's immediately.

The Makos defeated Jacksonville Community Christian College in their season-opener on Sept. 7, and then kept a goose egg in the loss column with Saturday's win. Is it a surprising start? Maybe.

But don't tell the players that.

"It just shows that, even with what little time we had to build our team, we can come out here and be 2-0 with two great wins, and hopefully get this undefeated season," Simmons said.

"A lot of people counted us out. We really only had one full month of practice," Jefferson said. "To come out here and play football at a high level - a win is always going to feel good."

For a team that hasn't had much time together, only truly getting about a full month of practice together due to the late start of the program, players appear to be gelling well.

"I don't know if many people gave us that (start) when we started talking about putting a team together in January," Cottrell said. "I want the other teams to come and see what Pensacola is all about."

While most of the game looked positive, scoring four touchdowns and adding a field goal on offense, and creating lots of defensive opportunities with three interceptions and a few fourth-down stops to keep the Gladiators at bay, it's hard to ignore one key moment.

A big fight that occurred in the beginning of the third quarter saw both teams collide near the SCCCC bench and erupt into a big brawl, with players leaving their own sideline and getting involved.

Referees and coaches, at first, struggled to break things up until cooler heads prevailed. With both teams huddled up near their coach on their respective sideline, at least on LCC's side, Cottrell emphasized something that the coaching staff did all preseason: this isn't what Mako football is.

Players from both sides were ejected, and some unsportsmanlike conduct penalties were handed out as a result. A few more small scuffles occurred after that, but things were largely calm for the remainder of the game.

"Just about everything bad that could happen, happened it seemed. (South Carolina) has a very talented squad. They threw the ball effectively, and the quarterbacks had some good scrambles. The first half was penalties and not being disciplined, and the second half was getting in that ruckus," Cottrell said. "Our guys kept plugging and making a few plays. We took the win from them. ...

"It was just a lack of discipline. ... We'll learn from it, I promise you. This is a good team and a bunch of good men."

The altercation shouldn't overshadow what happened on Lighthouse Private Christian Academy's campus on Saturday, however.

"It was just a thrill to be able to play at home. All of our family members were here. We had an excellent group of recruits here," Cottrell said. "It is a joy to see these guys getting a chance to play here, and local guys having success. I don't like it quite this close, though."