SUPER 7: Owens is everywhere for St. James; Thompson wins fourth-straight 7A title
Conner Owens (57) has been instrumental in leading the St. James Trojans to a Super 7 berth. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
You can’t turn on a tape of St. James football and not see Connor Owens moving to the football. Even if it’s chasing down a receiver on the opposite sideline 25 yards away from him.
“I have the mentality to just not give up on the play,” said the 6-foot-2, 243-pound senior defensive tackle. “They might be 15 yards downfield, but if I can get there, I can get there. As long as I can make a play, I’ll try to do it.”
Owens is a three-year starter on both sides of the ball, protecting the quarterback’s blind side at right tackle on offense and playing the crucial three-technique lineman on defense. He doesn’t have a favorite position, observing that “both are crucial positions” to the Trojans’ success.
“You could see that last year when we were playing MA because they were running the trap play and I wasn’t doing my job (on defense),” he noted. “That’s what led us to getting beat. Both sides of the ball, if you mess up, anything can happen.”
Owens and the Trojans (12-2) will have their hands full on Thursday in the 3A championship game against Piedmont (12-2) at Auburn’s Jordan-Hare Stadium at 11 a.m. Owens, in particular, will play a pivotal role on both sides of the ball.
“He’s doesn’t have any outside help (on offense),” St. James coach Jimmy Perry said. “He has to take care of outside (rushers) and inside. He’ll have a guy on top of him every snap, so he will play a big role this week for us.”
Defensively, Perry added, “your ‘three’ (Owens) and your ‘five’ (end AJ Alozie) better hold up well or you’re in trouble. So he’s going to be key for us.”
Owens, when he was younger and a little smaller, used to play Alozie’s position so the senior teammates have good chemistry together and a good working relationship.
“Connor is fundamentally strong and he’s really good,” Alozie said. “He’s a great run stopper. Me and him are a one-two punch. I’m a pass rusher, he’s a run stopper.”
“We push each other to be better,” Owens said. “It’s really iron sharpening iron. We’ve been going back and forth since our freshman year.”
Both broke into the starting lineup as sophomores, when Owens moved inside on defense and Alozie took his position at end. Even then, Owens said, he could tell this group of Trojans would be special.
“I really could,” he said. “I don’t think it’s the talent aspect, it’s how we’ve jelled together as a team, how we always have fun, always stick together and push each other to be better.”
Offensively, Owens is part of a group of linemen that have blocked for the school’s career rushing leader and protected the school’s career passing leader while averaging 38.2 points per game and scoring at least 30 points in every game except one, a midseason loss to 5A finalist Charles Henderson.
Owens said part of his offense’s success is a fast start by the unit and “I put that on the coaches,” he said. “Every week, we come out with a set 10 plays, specific plays that we know we’re going to hit. The coaches read these defenses well, so that’s really why we start out fast.”
Against the Bulldogs, St. James will have to be sound on both sides of the ball.
“It’s really fitting your gaps and making sure you squeeze holes,” Owens said, “because there are a lot of plays where they try and pull us through the ‘A’ gap so we just have to stop that and make sure we fill up gaps as best as we can. They’re a team full of heart and effort, so it’s who wants it more.
“The key is stopping the run and running the football,” Owens said. “That’s where we get to our bread and butter. It opens up our passing game. And if we can stop the run, for them, they’ll start panicking a little bit, I believe, because that’s what they like to do.”
The Trojans have never been here. Each win sets a school record, each step in the playoff journey the last two weeks has been through uncharted waters. Last week, after thrashing Mobile Christian 35-7 in the 3A semifinals, the dream of every St. James player was realized.
“It really started to hit me at the end of Friday night, all the time during the summer we worked out, all the nights I spent just watching film,” Owens said. “On Saturday, it was the way my parents were reacting to it, how they were talking to me. It’s like, ‘We’re really here, we’re really doing this.’”
Standing in their way is a veteran program making its sixth trip to the finals in the last eight years. No one expects the Trojans to win. And that’s just the way they like it.
“I like being the underdog,” Owens said. “We’ve been seeing it all season, people betting against us, and that is really what drives us. Every week, we love the opportunity to prove people wrong.”
Thompson wins 7A in blowout fashion
AUBURN – The last time Thompson High School and Auburn High School met on the football field, the Warriors needed a miracle comeback in the final 18 seconds to win the 2020 Class 7A championship.
The Warriors (11-3) endured was no such drama this time as Thompson defeated Auburn 49-24 Wednesday night at Auburn University’s Jordan-Hare Stadium to win the Super 7 Class 7A state football title for the fourth straight year.
Thompson scored on its first three possessions, while forcing Auburn into three-and-out on the Tigers’ first four, and built a 21-0 lead in the game’s first 11 minutes. At the end of the first quarter, Auburn has 6 yards of total offense and Thompson had three touchdowns.
“Our coaches put together an amazing game plan, and we executed it,” Thompson senior defensive lineman Peter Woods said. “We did our part. We complemented each other.”
Thompson became the first school in the AHSAA to win four straight state titles in the AHSAA’s largest classification since Hoover won four in a row from 2002-05 in 6A. Thompson is the first school to win four consecutive football titles since the AHSAA went to a seven-classification system in 2015.
“It’s a special year,” Thompson coach Mark Freeman said.
Thompson quarterback Trent Seaborn, an eighth grader, threw touchdown passes of 49 yards to Kolby Hearn and added TD passes of 8 and 36 yards to Korbyn Williams, all in the first half. Seaborn finished 12-of-14 passing for 207 yards and five touchdowns and was named the game’s MVP. Williams also snagged two 25-yard TD passes in the third period to finish with six catches for 142 yards and four TDs.
Thompson’s AJ Green started the scoring with a 1-yard TD run midway through the first quarter, followed by Seaborn’s first two TD passes for a 21-0 lead.
“Field position was huge in the first quarter,” Auburn coach Keith Etheredge said. “We did not get any first downs and we kept having to punt. They were starting inside the 50 about every time. It made it tough.”
Auburn (12-2) cut the deficit to 21-10 after DV Williams’ 17-yard TD run that was set up by Caleb Pitts’ interception of Seaborn early in the second quarter and a 47-yard field goal by Towns McGough with 2:17 to go before halftime.
Seaborn replied quickly as he completed a 45-yard pass to Williams and added a 36-yarder to Williams for a touchdown on the next play. That pushed the lead to 28-10 with 1:22 to go before halftime.
Thompson received the second-half kickoff, and Green ran 80 yards for a touchdown on the first play, ending any Auburn hopes for a comeback. Green finished with 147 yards rushing and two TDs on 21 carries.
Seaborn and Williams hooked up for a third touchdown – a 25-yarder – on the Warriors’ next drive for a 42-10 lead midway through the fourth quarter.
Williams added his final TD reception with 2:33 to go in the third quarter, as he caught a tipped pass, juked a defender and then ran through a tackle for a 25-yard touchdown and a 49-10 lead.
Auburn scored twice in the fourth quarter, a 29-yard run by Tyler Flakes with 5:59 to go and a 16-yard pass from back-up quarterback Davis Harsin to Ean Nation with 1:11 to go.
Seaborn won the MVP award and was honored on the field just before the trophy presentation, but he quickly gave the plaque to Williams. Asked why in the post-game interview, and he said he and Williams had grown close during the season and implied the senior’s leadership helped him succeed before offering an additional reason.
“I just thought he balled out,” Seaborn said.
Williams blocked a punt in the 2020 title game against Auburn and returned it for a momentum-chancing touchdown with 18 seconds to go, as the Warriors later kicked a field goal on the game’s final play to earn a 29-28 victory.
Asked which performance was better, he drew laughs with his answer: “Both,” he said.
The performance of Seaborn, Williams and the offense overshadowed a strong showing by the Thompson defense, which limited Auburn to 89 yards rushing, 219 yards of total offense and 2-of-14 on third-down conversions.
Seth Hampton led the Thompson offense with six tackles, Woods added five tackles, Kaleb Harris intercepted a pass, and Tony Mitchell had a sack.
Auburn’s Klark Cleveland led all players with nine tackles. Clyde Pittman completed 10-of-22 passes for 54 yards and was sacked twice.
The Super 7 State Championships move into day 2 Thursday with the 3A state finals at 11 a.m., followed by the 1A state championship at 3 p.m., and the 5A title game at 7.