Wellborn’s tough week ends in loss

UPDATE: Panthers lose to No. 1 Madison Academy, but don’t go down without a fight

“I think under the circumstances that we had, the moves we had to make and the three days we had to do it, I don’t think the kids could have done no better. I didn’t see anybody out there loafing … anybody cowl down. I saw them try to do the best they possibly can and I’m very proud of them for it. I think they made the best of a tough situation.”

— Wellborn football coach Jeff Smith

By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today

Jeff Smith called two time outs in the final 20 seconds Friday night in a game whose outcome had long before been decided. It might have seemed a strange move for a team on the short end of a one-sided score, but the Wellborn coach wanted to make a point to his team that was playing a superior opponent at the end of a tough week.

The Panthers lost to top-ranked and two-time reigning state champion Madison Academy 56-8 in the third round of the Class 3A playoffs.

They weren’t going to win the game in their final possession, but that wasn’t the point of calling the time outs. At the end of an emotionally draining week, Smith wanted to show there was still fight in a team whose chances were dealt a massive blow earlier in the week.

“We don’t quit,” Smith said. “I was trying to help them score. Forget the scoreboard, do the best you possibly can and, no matter what, don’t quit – that was the message.

“We could set there and let the time run out and got it over with. We came in here to do our best and I wanted the kids to get the best from us, too, not just them give us their best; it goes vice versa.”

The Panthers faced one of the top teams in the state in any classification without six key players, suspended for the game in the aftermath of a wild post-game brawl following their last-minute win over Oakman last week.

Both schools were hit with fines and placed on probation, but Wellborn had players suspended for the game and its community remained resentful of it. All six of the suspended players were in the bench area encouraging their teammates Friday night.

It was going to be a tough go for the Panthers (8-4) as it was, but they weren’t going to back down. They moved the ball well with their makeshift offense, but the Mustangs (12-1) simply had too much.

Kerryon Johnson, who had a big night against Piedmont the week before, had a similar impact Friday night. He set the tone by returning the opening kickoff 69 yards to set up the game’s first touchdown, rushed for 99 yards and two touchdowns in the first half and returned a punt he blocked near midfield for another score early in the third quarter before retiring for the night.

Malik Miller, Johnson’s running mate, had 65 yards rushing and two first-half touchdowns. The Mustangs come back this way next week to play at undefeated Glencoe in the state semifinals.

The Mustangs got Wellborn down right away, scoring three plays after Johnson’s opening kickoff return and scoring touchdowns on five of its six possessions in the first half to open a 35-0 lead on 21 offensive plays.

“I think it’s always important to jump on anybody as fast as you can,” Madison Academy coach Eric Cohu said. “We knew all those Wellborn players on the field would be competing at a high level. We can’t, in a quarterfinal game, let our intensity go down or bad things happen. We just had to kind of take care of our football game, not turn the ball over, finish drives. The first half I was really proud of both sides of the ball.”

“We knew those guys are fighters, they’re not going to give up,” Johnson said. “Even with those players being out, they’ve got motivation to go out there and play their hearts out; they have nothing to lose. We had everything to lose; we just knew we had to come out and punch them in the mouth first, fight hard from the beginning to the end.”

D.J. Rhoden “played like a warrior” for Wellborn, Smith said. He rushed for 122 yards on 17 carries — a big chunk coming on a 47-yard burst in the second quarter — and scored the Panthers’ only touchdown on a 1-yard run with 9:10 to play.

“That was pretty important to me because I didn’t want to get shut out,” Rhoden said of his touchdown. “I wanted to show people we are keep playing as a team and we’re going to keep playing, we’re not going to give up on y’all.”

Freshman quarterback Austin McQueen, making his first varsity start in place of suspended senior Landon Machristie, directed the Panthers’ offense to 291 yards, mostly on the ground to control the clock and make Madison Academy play defense and to protect his future. He completed his first pass, but was intercepted in the second quarter on a throw Smith said later he shouldn’t have called.

“It was a good experience,” McQueen said. “The first series I was really nervous, but after that I realized it’s not as bad as I thought it would be. I just got out there and did it. I know how much Wellborn football means to me now. When we come back and when we come back I’m going to work as hard as I can and next year I’m going to do the best I can to win a state championship.

Freshman Pat Harris, McQueen’s B-Team running back playing in place of another suspended senior, rushed for 84 yards on 17 carries. Jordan Montgomery, whose responsibilities shifted in the wake of the suspension and ran for the ensuing two-point conversion after Rhoden’s touchdown, rushed for 65 yards.

“I think under the circumstances that we had, the moves we had to make and the three days we had to do it, I don’t think the kids could have done no better,” Smith said. “We had one senior who started tonight and played against a team like that and I was very proud of their effort.

“I didn’t see anybody out there loafing. I didn’t see anybody cowl down. I saw them try to do the best they possibly can and I’m very proud of them for it. I think they made the best of a tough situation.”

As painful as the past six days have been in the program, the Wellborn community stood behind its team all week and was in full throat throughout the game, even when the Panthers had fallen way behind, giving Rhoden the feeling he was at a college game. Smith had a passionate message of hope for them after the game.

“There’s no community that lives and dies with their football team more than Wellborn; they just do, they love it,” he said. “The two hardest things I’ve done since I’ve been at Wellborn was when ‘Tootie’ passed away (Aaron Harris in 2011) – that was No. 1 – and No. 2 was Monday night when we talked to the community about what was going to go down. To see some of the faces of our people, it just killed me.

“Our future is still bright and we will win a state championship. Now, it didn’t come this year, but it’s going to come. We’re just going to do it. And it’s not going to be just for the team that does it, it’s going to be for all these guys whose come through here for these 60 years and have sweatted and bled and poured everything they got wearing that black jersey and black helmet and playing on The Hill. We’re going to do it for everybody, but it’s going to happen.”

Madison Academy 14 21 14 7 — 56
Wellborn 0 0 0 8 — 8

M – Malik Miller 1 run (Nathan Geis kick)
M – Kerryon Johnson 18 run (Geis kick)
M – Miller 4 run (Geis kick)
M – Johnson 43 run (Geis kick)
M – Nicolas Tomlinson 16 pass from Ashton Coward (Geis kick)
M – Johnson 50 blocked punt return (Sean Dorney kick)
M – Adam Mann 1 run (Dorney kick)
W – D.J. Rhoden 1 run (Jordan Montgomery run)
M – Jonathan Parris 10 run (Dorney kick)

Category MA W
First downs 17 14
Rushes-yds 32-309 52-285
C-A-I 4-6-0 1-5-1
Passing yds 44 6
Fumbles-lost 0-0 1-0
Punts-avg 1-30.0 4-25.3
Penalties-yds 5-50 4-19

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