Cleburne County knocks off Saks

By EASportsToday.com
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Updated: October 18, 2014

PV, Anniston, White Plains all get victories; JCA falls

Friday Night County Scores
Anniston 26, St. Clair County 14
Alexandria 64, Moody 37
Donoho 27, Ragland 8
Jacksonville 41, Hokes Bluff 7
Valley Head 46, JCA 35
Pleasant Valley 41, Ohatchee 19
Piedmont 49, Westbrook Christian 0
Cleburne County 34, Saks 20
Glencoe 56, Weaver 7
Wellborn 54, Ashville 22
White Plains 47, Crossville 27

Games of Oct. 24
Anniston at Alexandria
Appalachian at Donoho
Jacksonville at Saks
Waterloo at JCA
Wellborn at Ohatchee
Oxford at Chelsea
Weaver at Piedmont
Pleasant Valley at Glencoe
White Plains at Cherokee County

By East Alabama Sports Today

HEFLIN — A statement was made Friday night at L.E. Bell Field, and contrary to most prognosticators, it wasn’t made by the visiting Saks Wildcats.

Trying to earn their first region title since the 2007, the ninth-ranked Cleburne County Tigers used depth, strength and surprising speed to knock off the No. 2 team in Class 4A in impressive fashion 34-20.

The loss snapped Saks’ 19-game regular-season winning streak. The Wildcats’ last regular-season loss came at Piedmont on Oct. 19, 2012.

Saks (7-1, 5-1) started out strong enough, forcing Heflin to a three-and-out on the opening possession of the night. It proceeded to take the ball and march down the field on a 60-yard, four-play drive to draw first blood. But it was all Tigers over the next quarter and a half.

Cleburne County (7-1, 6-0) scored three unanswered touchdowns highlighted by a breakaway run by quarterback Brady Padgett.

Saks would put together two scoring drives to get within a touchdown in the second and third quarters. But both times it cut into the deficit Brandon Horn kept them at bay with two long runs.

Saks will play Jacksonville this week for the second seed in the region. The winner gets a home game in the first round of the playoffs. The loser has to hit the road in Round 1.

Pleasant Valley 41, Ohatchee 19

JACKSONVILLE – Pleasant Valley’s young secondary came to play again Friday night and it helped the Raiders keep their playoff hopes alive.

The secondary that broke up 12 passes a week ago had four interceptions among seven takeaways this week that allowed the Raiders to turn back Ohatchee 41-19.

With the win, the Raiders (3-5, 3-3) gained a tie for fourth place In Class 3A Region 6 with Weaver and Westbrook Christian. Pleasant Valley and Weaver play two of the toughest opponents in the region next week, and if they both lose PV would still make the postseason for the first time since 2010 if Ashville beats Westbrook Christian.

That PV secondary features three ninth graders – cornerback Reagan King and safeties Caden Turner and Ethan Borders – and sophomore Dakota Jones.

“Our defense played lights out,” PV coach Jeff Davis said. “I can’t say enough them. (The secondary) is all over the place like little freakin’ gnats. Those guys are playing like we asked our seniors early in the year. These guys are leading us right now.”

Offensively, Drew Lewiski rushed for 130 yards and Dalton Bean rushed for 126 – and both scored a pair of touchdowns.

Category Oha PV
First downs 19 17
Rushing yds 245 255
C-A-I 12-21-4 6-10-1
Passing yds 90 114
Fumbles-lost 3-3 1-0
Punts-acg 2-30.0 3-26.7
Penalties-yds 6-65 10-68

Ohatchee 0 6 0 12 — 19
Pleasant Val. 0 20 8 13 — 41

P – Josh Preston 24 pass from Drew Lewiski (kick failed)
P – Lewiski 70 run (pass failed)
O – 11-yard pass (kick good)
P – Dalton Bean 30 run (conversion good)
P – Lewiski 21 run (Lewiski run)
P – Dalton Bean 5 run Bean kick)
P – Thomas Emery 98 interception return (PAT failed)
O – 66-yard run (pass failed)
O – 1-yard run (pass failed)

Anniston 26, St. Clair County 14

Quin Dobbins threw for 182 yards and hooked up with Tae Miller four times for touchdowns in the second half to rally Anniston in its final home game of the season Friday night.

Dobbins completed seven of 12 passes and connected with Miller from 4, 55, 62 and 36 yards for touchdowns. Miller caught six passes for 179 yards in the game.

“Dobbins and Miller had a big night,” Anniston coach Eddie Bullock said.

So did the Bulldogs’ defense. Trailing 20-14, the Fighting Saints had it third-and-goal from inside the 1 and the Bulldogs held them twice. Dast Sturkie had 17 tackles, Quin Gordon 12 and Elijah Jackson nine.

“I’m proud of our defense and looking forward to going to play Alexandria next week,” Bullock said. “I’m not giving up on the season. We want to win the way out, but tonight we showed a lot of class at home for our seniors’ last home game.”

St. Clair County 7 0 7 0 — 14
Anniston 0 0 20 6 — 26

S – Kelvin Johnson 2 run (PAT good)
S – Anthony Byrd 37 run (PAT good)
A – Tae Miller 4 pass from Quin Dobbins (PAT failed)
A – Miller 55 pass from Dobbins (PAT good)
A – Miller 62 pass from Dobbins (PAT failed)
A – Miller 36 pass from Dobbins (PAT good)

White Plains 47, Crossville 27

White Plains used some big plays from its special teams to open an early 20-0 lead, then fought off a couple late surges to roll over the visiting Lions at Homecoming.

The Wildcats (2-6) got a blocked punt, a punt return for a touchdown and a long kick-off return to set the stage for their first region victory.

“The special teams were big for us,” Wildcats coach Larry Strain said. “Our kids believing in themselves has been a big hurdle for us and now we are starting to believe.”

The Wildcats opened the scoring on an 8-yard run by Lawrence Jackson and two-point conversion by Dillon Greenwood. Four plays later Greenwood took a punt 63 yards for another touchdown.

Macy Carr blocked a Crossville punt and it set up a 19-yard touchdown pass from freshman quarterback Drew Hudson to Greenwood. Jackson set up another Hudson touchdown pass with a 37 yard kickoff return; this time the freshman quarterback connected with Ryan Hanson on fourth-and-goal from the 11.

Carr took over in the third quarter, erupting for 89 yards on seven carries and two touchdowns. He had scoring runs of 38 and 12 yards. Hudson answered a Crossville touchdown with a 58 yard scoring pass to Jackson to open up a 47-20 lead after three quarters.

Hudson was 8-of-16 for 176 yards and three touchdowns.

”We came into this situation losing about 80 per cent of the players from last year and we have to go with a lot of young players,” Strain said. “We have come light years from where we were at earlier in the season. The kids have worked hard and my hat goes off to them for their work ethic.”

Category Cro WP
First downs 14 13
Rushes-yds 50-263 28-174
A-C-I 3-10-0 8-17-2
Passing yards 19 176
Fumbles-lost 1-1 0-0
Penalties-yds 1-15 4-30

Crossville 0 14 6 7 — 27
White Plains 20 6 21 0 — 47

W – Lawrence Jackson 8 run (Dillon Greenwood run)
W – Greenwood 63 punt return (PAT failed)
W – Greenwood 19 pass from Drew Hudson (PAT failed)
C – William Pointer 16 run (Jose Diaz kick)
W — Ryan Hanson 11 pass from Hudson (run failed)
C – Porter 9 run (Diaz kick)
W – Macy Carr 38 run (Jacksonville run)
C – Gnon Pointer 17 pass from Micah White (kick blocked)
W – Jackson 58 pass from Hudson (Andrew Hudson kick)
W – Carr 12 run (kick failed)
C – Isaias Simpson 7 run (Diaz kick)

Valley Head 46, JCA 35

JACKSONVILLE – Bruising fullback Josh Gregory rushed for three touchdowns and Ben Kirby ran for two more as Valley Head dealt a serious, but not crushing blow to Jacksonville Christian’s hopes for a Class 1A playoff berth.

Daylon Brackett went over the 1,100-yard mark for the season in both rushing and passing during the game for JCA.

The Thunder (3-5, 2-4) scored first on Reed Murphy’s 1-yard run after opening the game with a successful onsides kick, but the Tigers scored 21 straight points in a 28-point second quarter to forge a 28-14 halftime lead. JCA cut its deficit to 20-14 on Brackett’s 11-yard run with 18 seconds left in the half before Kirby scored on a scrambling final play of the half.

Gregory scored on runs of 3, 9 and 24 yards. Kirby scored on runs of 9 and 50

Daylon Brackett had another big game for the Thunder. He completed 16 of 24 passes for 169 yards and touchdowns to Kris Armprester and Walker Messer, and he rushed for 74 yards and two scores

For the season, Brackett has rushed for 1,113 yards and 18 touchdowns while throwing for 1,172 yards and 12 touchdowns on 75-of-141 passing. He has 2,425 all-purpose yards.

Messer had 10 catches for 73 yards in the game, while Armprester caught five passes for 50 yards. Murphy rushed for 59 yards on 21 carries before appearing to injury his collarbone late in the game.

With the win, Valley Head (4-3, 4-1) moved into a three-way tie for first place in the region with Cedar Bluff and Spring Garden. JCA, which concluded its region schedule Friday, dropped a half-game behind Gaylesville, which it beat two weeks ago and plays Cedar Bluff next week.

Valley Head 0 28 6 12 – 46
Jax Christian 7 7 7 14 – 35

J — Reed Murphy 1 run (Daylon Brackett kick)
V – Ben Kirby 9 run (kick failed)
V – Josh Gregory 3 run (Gregory run)
V – Jeremy Young 4 run (PAT failed)
J – Brackett 11 run (Brackett kick)
V – Ben Kirby 50 run (Gregory run)
J – Kris Armprester 2 pass from Brackett (Brackett kick)
V – Gregory 9 run (PAT failed)
V – Gregory 24 run (PAT failed)
J — Brackett 1 run (Brackett kick) 40-28
V – Tyler Carden 53 run (PAT failed)
J – Walker Messer 11 pass from Brackett (Brackett kick)

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