TUESDAY PREPS: Catholic, Prattville earn FLAG victories in region play
Catholic’s Lily Abbott jumps over LAMP’s Elizabeth Ladd on conversion pass in Tuesday’s game on Tuesday. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
Catholic senior Jamie McGuire was impressed with her team’s defensive performance in Tuesday’s region game with LAMP.
“I feel like it was really good,” she said. “I feel like it was one of the better ones we’ve had. I feel like there was a lot of movement and everybody was really playing their part.”
LAMP was equally impressed, managing just two first downs and minus 12 yards of total offense in a 65-0 loss to the Knights.
“What gave us fits is they were getting into the backfield so fast,” LAMP coach Michael Thornton said. “We couldn’t get past the line of scrimmage the whole first half. But we got a little better at blocking in the second half, so that was encouraging.”
With just 11 players, the first-year LAMP program doesn’t get the opportunity to face a full defensive unit at practice, much less a unit with a third-year elite rusher like McGuire. The Golden Tigers would run just 19 plays that ended with a flag pull and McGuire made five of the tackles, resulting in two plays for no gain and three for 14 yards in losses.
By the end of the first half, Catholic had no first downs but owned a 36-0 lead, resulting in reserves playing a good portion of the second half.
“We get a lot of looks to try out new plays that we can’t typically get,” McGuire said. “It’s a different feel from trying out plays on your teammates (in practice). We get to try out new positions. I don’t want to say it’s like a practice game, but we really get to try to use things that we don’t typically use and see what works and what doesn’t.”
Ten rushing plays resulted in 34 yards in losses for the Golden Tigers in the first half, with three fumbles ending plays with a loss. The Knights, meanwhile, scored on a pair of 1-yard runs by quarterback Hayden Fitts, a 26-yard punt return for a touchdown that included a lateral from Frances Ann Rogers to Haley Ishman, a 12-yard pass from Fitts to Lily Abbott and a 12-yard run by Fitts.
After Abbott’s touchdown, the Knights moved the ball back to the 10-yard line and elected to go for a two-point conversion -- resulting in a Fitts pass to Ishman for a 27-0 lead -- and after Fitts’ run late in the first half, the ball was moved back to the 20 and Fitts ran in the three-point conversion.
The Knights scored on the first play of the second half on a 66-yard Sadler run, added a Ishman 25-yard touchdown reception and a 3-yard Fitts’ run on the final play of the third quarter for a 58-0 lead.
Abbott pulled in her second touchdown pass, followed by a conversion reception, for a 65-0 lead with 8:55 left. The Knights found the end zone in the second half with drives of one play, two plays, two plays and one play.
The Golden Tigers had a little more success running for 12 yards on 13 plays in the second half as both teams finished with two first downs.
“We had some positive plays at the end of the game running the ball, which is what I was hoping to establish early in the game,” Thornton said. “Ideally, that would have opened up the passing game. But we’re getting there. We’ve just got to keep making improvements, quarter by quarter, practice by practice.
LAMP (0-2) dropped to 0-1 in 1A-5A Region 2 play and will play host to Marbury in another region game next Tuesday at LAMP.
Catholic (2-2) improved to 2-0 in 1A-5A Region 2 play and will travel to Francis Marion on Thursday for another region game.
Prattville 20, Vestavia Hills 18
VESTAVIA HILLS -- Prattville rallied from an 18-point deficit in the second half to defeat Vestavia Hills 20-18 in the Lions’ 6A-7A Region 2 opener on Tuesday night.
It was the first loss of the year for the 2023 state runners-up, which had won their first five games by a combined score of 167-24.
“Coming off the Moody game where we didn’t play well (and lost) and a lot of things went against us, we grew up a lot tonight,” Prattville coach Brian Pittman said. “We realized that we’re never out of a game. Your big-time players step up when they’ve got to and start making plays and that was the difference in the game.
“We grew up a lot. It was a big win.”
The Lions had a touchdown on its opening possession negated by a penalty before the Rebels struck first for a 6-0 lead. A Prattville turnover led to a touchdown in the final seconds of the second quarter to give Vestavia Hills a 12-0 halftime lead.
The Rebels extended the lead to 18-0 late in the third quarter before the Lions rallied.
Lanieya Page’s touchdown reception trimmed the lead to 18-6 and the Rebels’ next possession ended with a Hartley McCay interception. A late hit penalty on the play moved the Lions closer to the red zone to set up another Page touchdown that cut the deficit to 18-13.
The Lions completed the comeback with a McCay 5-yard touchdown reception from Kaytie Chandler with 15 seconds remaining, then added the conversion to make it 20-18.
Vestavia Hills (5-1) dropped to 0-1 in 6A-7A Region 2 play and will face Mountain Brook in a region game next week.
Prattville (5-1) improved to 1-0 in 6A-7A Region 2 play and will travel to defending state champion Central-Phenix City next Tuesday at 4:30 p.m.
VOLLEYBALL
Catholic 3, Trinity 2
Trinity won the first two sets, 25-12 and 27-25, then lost the next three as Catholic rallied for a 3-2 win in a Class 5A Area 6 match at Captain Jack Court on Tuesday night.
The Knights rallied with wins of 25-21 and 25-10 to force the fifth set, a 15-12 Catholic victory.
For the Wildcats, Lilly Smith had 22 digs, Holland Williams had 13 kills, two aces, seven blocks and three digs and Anna Moore had 13 kills, two aces and 24 digs.
Trinity (13-5) dropped to 2-1 in area play and will travel to Holtville for an area match on Thursday at 5:30 p.m., then to Bayside Academy on Friday for the Battle by the Bay Tournament.
Catholic (15-4) improved to 3-0 in area play and will travel to LAMP for a match on Thursday at 5:30 p.m., then to Daphne for the Battle by the Bay Tournament.
Prattville Christian Academy 3, LAMP 0
PRATTVILLE -- The Panthers won their 4A Area 5 opener, defeating the Golden Tigers 25-4, 27-25 and 25-12 on Tuesday in the PCA gym.
For the Panthers, Baylee Rogers had 24 assists, two kills, eight digs and four aces, Emma Cate Carter had 15 kills, two blocks, six digs and three aces, Maren Diefenderfer had eight kills and two digs and Leah Cate Wilson had five kills, a block and a dig.
Paysley Bayer had three kills, a block and a dig, Jenna McClendon had three kills and two blocks, Olivia Rossi had two kills, Natalee Wheeler had two assists and seven digs, Aiden Williams had three assists, 10 digs and an ace, Morgan Fowler had an assist and four digs, Brylee Byrd had six digs and a kill, Kandice Crosby had two digs, Kenadie Minor had a kill, Marion Lewis had a block and Anniston Robison had a dig.
PCA (14-5) improved to 1-0 in area play and will travel to Tallassee for an area match on Thursday at 6:30 p.m.