UPDATED WEEK 0 RECAP: MA wins on last second field goal; Prattville, Lanier open with wins
COMBINED REPORTS
Friday’s season opener between St. James and Montgomery Academy had just about everything you could want in a high school football game.
There were explosive plays, turnovers, trick plays, a grind-it-out running game and an explosive passing game. And for the icing on the cake, there was a walk-off win delivered with a game-winning kick as time expired.
Alex Kohn booted a 20-yard field goal on the game’s final play to rally Montgomery Academy to a 38-36 win over the Trojans at McLemore Field on Friday night in the season opener for both teams.
“It’s definitely a lot better against an in-town rival,” Kohn said. “I treated it like a normal kick. It was like an extra point, that’s how far it was, so I treated it like that.”
The Eagles dominated early before the Trojans rallied to a take a two-touchdown lead with the help of some Montgomery Academy miscues. St. James, which picked up three of its four first downs on explosive scoring plays, grabbed one last lead midway through the fourth quarter before the Eagles counted with a methodical march to Kohn’s game winner.
“I was proud of the kids,” said St. James coach Jimmy Perry, who was coaching in his 200th game as a head coach on Friday night. “I think we only had one turnover. We went through five defensive backs and seven wide receivers with cramps, so I have to do a better job getting us hydrated but our effort was off the charts. Sometimes you play good and win, sometimes you play good and lose. I thought we played pretty good, we just happened to lose.”
Cosner Harrison, who rushed for 1,777 yards and 22 touchdowns last year as a sophomore, managed just 25 yards on 12 carries, but recorded the Trojans’ final points on a third-and-13 screen pass from KJ Jackson that went 83 yards with 5:36 left. He also aided in the first points, taking a handoff from Jackson, then flipping it back to the quarterback on a flea flicker that found Ethan Beard all alone on a 71-yard bomb on the Trojans’ second play of the game to tie the game at 7-7.
“What a great play call on the screen,” Montgomery Academy coach Robert Johnson said. “And they executed it beautifully. The flea flicker was beautiful. There were a lot of big plays. Our guys just gutted it out. No one deserved to lose that game at all.”
The Trojans forged ahead in the second quarter when a bad snap over punter Carson Springer’s head resulted in a 14-yard fumble return for a touchdown by Jake Huff, followed moments later by Granger Hicks’ 35-yard interception return to the 1-yard line.
Harrison scored on a 1-yard plunge to make it 19-7 (the two-point conversion failed) and kicked a 32-yard field goal on the first possession of the third quarter to give the Trojans a 22-14 lead.
The Eagles took an early lead with a dominating possession to open the game, but struggled to move the ball through the first half of the game. Quarterback Judson Lindsey completed his first pass, then missed on his next six before he was replaced late in the third quarter by Thomas Woodward. The junior benefited from a pass interference penalty on his first attempt and his second found Jamal Cooper for a 13-yard gain. Lindsey came back moments later with a short pass over the middle that Cooper turned into a 35-yard sprint to the end zone, trimming the deficit to 29-20.
Woodward would lead both MA possessions in the fourth quarter, leading to a touchdown and a field goal as the Eagles dominated the fourth quarter.
“Hats off to Thomas Woodward, he really gave us a spark,” Johnson said. “He completed a couple of big passes. Nigel (Walker) went up and made a really big pass reception that was huge in the ballgame. Look, you take away any one positive play in the game that we made and we lose that ballgame.
“But Judson went out and hugged him and patted him on the back before he ever took his first snap. That’s a leader.”
Jackson completed just three passes but all three went for touchdowns, including throws of 71 and 55 yards to Ethan Beard and the 83-yard screen pass to Harrison. The sophomore was 3 of 6 for 209 yards and three touchdowns.
“That’s Neal Posey,” Perry said. “He called a great game. He does such a great job with KJ and our offense. Our defense just stayed on the field too long. They converted a lot of third and longs.”
Johnson said a turning point in the game came in the fourth quarter as Barr Armistead left the game with cramps.
“When ‘63’ went out, that changed the game,” Johnson said. “Armistead dominated the football game. We had to double-team him, we had to run away from him. That kid can play.”
Without Armistead in the game, MA fullback Jashawn Cooper gained 102 yards in the final 12 minutes of the game, finishing with 201 yards on 33 carries.
“They’ve got a back bigger than just about everybody on our team,” Perry said. “He was a load. But you know what? Our little guys never backed off any of them.”
The Eagles maintained possession for a whopping 34:51 of the 48-minute game, a factor that helped the Montgomery Academy offense dominate the line of scrimmage on the final drive for the game-winning points.
“Obviously, we’re trying to move the ball to begin with,” Johnson said. “You’re thinking I’ll take a touchdown, I’ll take anything. Once we got inside the 15, I knew we could kick a field goal, but it was do we really want to score a touchdown? Because you don’t want to give KJ enough time to throw that football. That dart he threw on the dig route, that was a Major League throw. So it came up: We might not want to leave that kid any time.”
They didn’t, taking a timeout with 1.9 seconds remaining and weathering a distraction after the Trojans jumped offsides on Kohn’s initial field goal, forcing the senior to kick again and bring the Eagles back from a two-touchdown deficit on the season’s first weekend.
“It just shows that we have a lot of grit, we don’t give up,” Kohn said. “We were down a couple of touchdowns and we just kept pulling each other up. I don’t think anybody’s head was down. We just acted, as Coach Johnson would say, steady and calm.”
Catholic 35, B.B. Comer 0
Montgomery Catholic defeated the B.B Comer Tigers, 35-0, on a stormy Friday night after the offense, defense and special teams came up big for the Knights.
Junior Jeremiah Cobb led the Knights with over 100 yards rushing and two touchdowns and his backup, E.J. Babies, recorded over 75 yards rushing and a touchdown. Senior Jamari Young recorded over 70 yards receiving with a touchdown. Senior Jamarion Augustus recovered a blocked Tigers punt in the end zone to score a special teams’ touchdown for the Knights as they cruised in Kirk Johnson’s debut as head coach.
“We want to dominate all three phases, and they did a good job of that tonight,” said Johnson. “We want to get three turnovers a game, that’s our goal.”
The Knights got on the board during their first possession after Cobb broke a few tackles on the way to the end zone. On the Tigers’ ensuing possession, Catholic junior Will Belsterling intercepted a pass to give the Knights another quick offensive possession. The Knights capitalized on the opportunity with a Cobb touchdown run.
After a few more possessions, the Tigers were forced to punt deep in their own territory, but the kick was blocked by the Knights and recovered by Augustus in the end zone for the third Knights’ touchdown. There was no scoring in the entire second quarter, which was delayed for about an hour due to lightning in the area.
During their first possession at the start of the third quarter, Babies broke free for a huge 51-yard touchdown run to give the Knights their fourth touchdown of the game.
Towards the start of the fourth quarter, the Knights’ defense forced and recovered a B.B. Comer fumble to give themselves another offensive possession. Young then scored the final touchdown of the game after multiple runs down the field.
Johnson tries to give everyone a shot to play, and knows how important that is for both for his team and against his team’s opponents.
“We try to get the ball in everyone’s hands, and get everyone some touches, so we can utilize what they can do,” Johnson said. “The more people that touch the ball, the better we’ll be, because it allows the team to not focus on just one or a few players, as well as making it harder for other teams to prepare for what we’ll do.”
With many juniors and a few sophomores on his team, Johnson appreciates his younger players stepping up to fulfill new roles, like Babies.
“E.J is very important and he’s become vital to our offense,” said Johnson. “He allows us to have a three-headed monster on offense, along with our other players.”
Catholic (1-0) travels to Troy next week to play 5A Charles Henderson on Friday.
Sidney Lanier 26, Jeff Davis 12 (Saturday)
The Poets gave up a kickoff return for a touchdown late in the first quarter but then held the Vols scoreless the rest of the way to earn a season-opening win at Cramton Bowl on Saturday.
Quarterback Braylon Jones passed for one touchdown and ran for another to lead Lanier. Brian Moss added an interception return of 25 yards for a score while Tacrais Bozeman had a 3-yard TD run for the Poets.
Jeff Davis scored the first points of the night on a Josh Richardson run of a yard at the 6:32 mark of the first quarter. The other points came on an 85-yard kickoff return from Donald Harris, Jr. with just over three minutes remaining in the first period.
But the Vols were held to just 44 yards of total offense in the second half.
Bozeman finished with 71 yards rushing to lead the Poets.
Lanier (1-0) will travel to Tuscaloosa to face Paul Bryant next week. Jeff Davis returns to the bowl to face Robert E. Lee on Friday.
Prattville 41, Wetumpka 13
WETUMPKA – Quarterback E.J. Ousley passed for two touchdowns and Joshwa Browder added a 44-yard touchdown run as the Lions ruined the first-ever game for the Indians in new Wetumpka Stadium on Friday night.
Ousley found Kameran Shanks for two long touchdown passes of 75 and 58 yards. Albert Taggert added an 8-yard run for a score.
Collin Rogers added two field goals of 26 and 25 yards.
The Indians’ Quinn Wilson had an 89-yard kickoff return for a touchdown and added 74 yards rushing to lead the Indians. Quarterback Nate Rogers threw a 37-yard touchdown pass to Derek Smith.
Shanks finished with 175 yards in receptions with two scores.
Prattville (1-0) opens their home schedule against Stanhope Elmore while Wetumpka travels to Tallassee next Friday.
Autaugaville 32, R.C. Hatch 14
Jermaine Sanders scored two touchdowns to lead Autaugaville to an opening-season win on Friday.
Ladarrien Golsen and JaMarcus Rose each scored touchdowns while Jaden Nixon had a 22-yard run for a score to lead the Eagles.
Autaugaville (1-0) will play at Talladega County Central in a non-region game next Friday.
Moody 49, Elmore County 28
ECLECTIC – Payton Stephenson rushed for 103 yards and two touchdowns but it wasn’t enough to keep Moody from spoiling the season opener for the Panthers at Burt-Haney Field on Friday.
Stephenson also passed for 75 yards and a score with Jabari Murphy catching five passes for 51 yards and a touchdown. Murphy added 69 yards and a touchdown on seven carries. CJ Wilkes added 81 yards rushing for Elmore County (0-1).
The Panthers will face Dadeville next Friday.
Pike Road 76, McGill-Toolen 51
MOBILE -- The Patriots spoiled the coaching debut of Norman Joseph, jumping on the 6A Yellow Jackets with 55 first-half points, showing little effect from a weather delay that moved the kickoff back more than an hour.
Iverson Hooks rushed for 332 yards and five touchdowns on 16 carries and threw for 217 yards and three more scores as the Patriots cruised to an easy win, extending their string of season opening wins to all four years as a varsity program.
Jeremaine Abner rushed for 128 yards and a pair of touchdowns on just six carries and Kingston Rogers had 195 yards receiving along with four touchdowns as the Patriots piled up 69 points midway through the third quarter.
Rogers had three receiving touchdowns and added another on a 92-yard kickoff return. He finished with 151 return yards to accumulate 346 all-purpose yards.
Pike Road (1-0) returns home to play Calhoun next Friday.
Edgewood Academy 32, Southern Academy 14
ELMORE -- Austin Champion completed 11 of 17 passes for 234 yards and three touchdowns in his debut as the Wildcats’ starting quarterback, helping Edgewood roll to a 32-0 lead in the 2021 season opener on Friday night.
Champion threw three touchdown passes to Trevor Rodie and ran for another as the Wildcats had 393 total yards in their season opener. Rodie finished with five receptions for 155 yards.
Bradley Boone added 180 rushing yards on 16 carries and added five tackles on defense.
Champion threw 51 yards to Rodie for the game’s first points midway through the first quarter and added another score a little more than two minutes later on a 55-yard run by Boone for a 13-0 lead. The big-play Wildcats struck again just before the half, making it 19-0 on a 48-yard pass from Champion to Rodie with 47 seconds left.
Champion ran for another score, then threw 33 yards to Rodie for a touchdown and a 32-0 lead before the Cougars scored a pair of late touchdowns.
JT Brazell led the Edgewood defense with seven tackles, followed by Bryson Boone with six.
Edgewood (1-0) play host to Hooper next Friday while Southern (0-1) travels to South Choctaw Academy.
Banks Academy 12, Pickens Academy 6
CARROLLTON -- Daniel Cowens scored the game-winning touchdown to break a 6-6 tie and lift the Jets to a season opening win over the Pirates on Friday night.
Banks (1-0) won just one game last year in its debut as an AISA program. The Jets return home to play Cornerstone Christian next week.
Pickens (0-1) travels to Coosa Valley.