AISA THURSDAY: Autauga Academy strikes early to topple Bessemer Academy

Karl Ligon finds room to run in Autauga Academy’s win over Bessemer Academy on Thursday. (Tim Gayle)

By TIM GAYLE

PRATTVILLE – It didn’t take long for Robert Rose to make Autauga Academy fans happy.

Rose dazzled the homecoming crowd with three touchdown passes in the first quarter as the Generals ran away from Bessemer Academy, 45-8, at Autauga Academy on Thursday night.

“We just take what they give us,” Autauga coach Bobby Carr said. “If they load up the box to stop Karl (Ligon) – everyone knows he’s a great running back – we feel confident in Rob and all our receivers. We’ve got a lot of weapons out there and Rob does a good job of mixing it up, getting it in our playmakers’ hands and they make plays for us.”

Rose spread the riches to five different receivers, hitting Ligon out of the backfield for a 52-yard touchdown on the first play from scrimmage, connecting with Josh Palmer for 31 yards, Anden Hilyer for 18 and a sliding Noah Ray in the end zone on his next three tosses before finally returning to Hilyer on the next possession to set up a 43-yard touchdown pass to James Wright for a 21-0 lead with 2:48 remaining in the first quarter.

“We’ve got a lot of playmakers, so we just give them the ball in space,” Rose said. “My mindset is just go through my progressions, do great reads and have no turnovers. Show that we work in practice. Practice is repetition and then it comes easy to us.”

It came easy on Thursday night. Rose was 8 of 9 for 230 yards and four touchdowns in the first half, adding a 13-yard pass over the middle to Hilyer for a 35-0 lead with eight minutes remaining in the first half to complete his night. His only incomplete pass was a communication mixup on a pass in the flat to Ligon that set up the touchdown pass to Hilyer on the next play.

Ligon, who rushed for 21 yards and a touchdown on six carries, spent a little longer on the field with backup Lake Barber but had no carries the remainder of the game. Officials went with a running clock midway through the second quarter, limiting the second half to 26 total plays, most in Bessemer’s red zone. 

The Generals closed out the half with a 45-yard field goal from Shawn Pierce – which bounced off the crossbar – for a 38-0 lead and added a second half touchdown on an interception return by Ray.

By that time, Bessemer starter Matt Masingill had been replaced with backup Jayden Fennell, who led the Rebels’ scoring drive in the final seconds with what proved to be the game’s final play, a 3-yard run by Evan Cochran with 1:25 remaining. The running clock took care of the final 85 seconds as Fennell ran in the two-point conversion. 

O’Ronde Henderson had five tackles and a fumble caused and Deilmalik Livingston had three tackles, including two for loss, as the Generals dominated the line of scrimmage in holding the Rebels to minus 21 total yards before officials went with a running clock.

The Rebels finished with 61 total yards long after Rose, Ligon and the rest of the Autauga starters had completed their evening’s work. Despite the lack of playing time on Thursday, Rose was upbeat.

“I’m around my brothers,” he said. “We all came together this summer and it’s been family ever since. We always cheer for the next person that comes in – Karl, me, anybody, second string, third string, anybody that’s ready to play.”

Bessemer (1-3) returns home to play Lee-Scott next week, while Autauga (5-0) goes on the road to Florida to play R.F. Munroe before returning home for a huge region game with Escambia.

“We know what we’ve got in front of us,” Carr said. “R.F. Munroe is loaded. They’ve got players everywhere. And, obviously, Escambia will be a really, really tough test. We’ve got some tough games in front of us. But like I just told them, we want to practice to get better. You want to practice with a purpose and that’s the challenge we’re going to put on our players the next couple of weeks.”

“We practice for perfection,” Rose said. “I feel like these next couple of weeks will really challenge us but I feel like we can overcome anything that comes our way.”