ACA-STJ: Trojans drop Eagles for key region win

Cosner Harrison runs through ACA’s defense in the Trojans’ win on Friday. (Tim Gayle)

By TIM GAYLE

One important piece was missing from Friday’s 3A Region 3 battle between St. James and Alabama Christian Academy at Carlisle Field.

ACA didn’t dress out its senior quarterback, Hayes Hunt.

In the first half, the game went as expected. St. James, playing with talented junior quarterback KJ Jackson, rolled out to a 21-point lead as ACA tried to keep pace with tailback Corey Landers running and handing off out of Wildcat formation.

In the second half, the game became more of a battle as Landers found his passing touch and the Eagles put on an inspiring rally before running out of time in a 35-20 loss to St. James on Senior Night.

“If we’re not wide-eyed in the first half, we may have a different game,” ACA coach Michael Summers observed. “Our kids fought like hell in the second half but we dug ourselves too big a hole in the first half. Our guys fought but I can’t say enough about No. 5 for their team. Cosner (Harrison) may be the most underrated player in the state.

“I was very proud of our No. 5 (Landers) as well. He’s never thrown a pass in a game and I thought he came in and did a great job. We’ll be OK. We’ll get healthy, Hayes will be back soon and we’ll be fine.”

Hayes, who suffered an ankle injury the week before against Montgomery Academy, went through pre-game warmups but was held out of action on Friday. Losing the quarterback hurt the Eagles on two fronts as Landers moved to quarterback, limiting his effectiveness, and the offense was missing Hunt’s arm, which had accounted for 13 touchdown passes in the first five games this season.

Landers completed just three passes for 11 yards in the first half while carrying the ball four times for 16 yards. Harrison, meanwhile, rushed for 99 yards and a touchdown in the first 24 minutes, leading the Trojans down the field in the final five minutes of the first half and scoring on an 8-yard run for a 21-0 halftime lead.

He finished with 165 yards on 22 carries, leaving him 747 yards shy of Tony Amerson’s school career mark.

Jackson, meanwhile, scored on a quarterback sneak and threw touchdown passes of 20 and 28 yards to Ethan Beard, giving him 20 passing touchdowns this season and a school record 65 in his career.

ACA, meanwhile, countered with Landers, who had 73 yards on 13 carries; Otasowie Dion, who had 118 yards on 11 carries; and AC Walters, who had 29 yards on 10 carries.

“They’ve got a lot of moving parts and their run game is really good,” Harrison said. “They have two or three good running backs.”

Dion’s 65-yard touchdown run on the third play of the second half pulled ACA within 21-7 and that’s when things got interesting. Landers started acting like a quarterback, completing 5 of 6 passes for 109 yards and a pair of touchdowns in one stretch, hitting Avery Stuart on a 23-yard pass late in the third quarter and Preston Hicks with a 25-yarder midway through the fourth quarter. Suddenly, it was 35-20 and a little closer than expected.

“We just had some kinks in our defense,” Harrison said. “They had found a hole in us. But we’ll fix it and be better next week.”

The Trojans had a cushion thanks to an early fourth-quarter touchdown from Clint Houser, who sprinted at left end, pulled up with a move to get around Walters at the 15, and then accelerated to the end zone to complete a 36-yard run that put St. James in front 35-14 with 10:33 left.

After Hicks’ touchdown, an onside kick failed but the Eagles would get one last opportunity, only to have five penalties bog down the drive before ACA finally turned it over on downs with 2:34 remaining.

“I thought they did a great job, being shorthanded at quarterback and playing that Wildcat stuff,” St. James coach Jimmy Perry said. “I was proud of the win. We got the home-field advantage in the first round of the playoffs (on Nov. 4). We’ve still got some errors we’ve got to clean up but we’ll get to practice another week.”

Landers completed 8 of 15 for 120 yards and a pair of touchdowns, helping the Eagles’ offense roll up 259 total yards in the second half.

“They played real hard,” Perry said. “We stayed in our three-man front all night and with that Wildcat stuff, we probably should’ve gone to a four-man front and given ourselves a better advantage.”

The win was the 15th consecutive region victory for St. James (5-2) and guaranteed the Trojans either first or second place in the region and a first-round playoff game at home for the seventh consecutive year and eighth time in Perry’s 11 years at the school.

St. James travels to Trinity next week with the Region 3 championship on the line.

ACA (3-3) dropped to 1-2 in region play and into a three-way tie with Prattville Christian and Greensboro for fourth place, a half-game behind Southside. The Eagles close out region play with home games against PCA and Greensboro over the next two weeks before playing at Southside on Oct. 21.