Region champs

Cleburne County wins 4A Region 6 after sophomore safety runs down QB in closing seconds after fourth-down penalty puts Saks in tough spot

CALHOUN COUNTY SCORES
Alexandria 56, Moody 14
Anniston 8, St. Clair County 0
Cleburne County 36, Saks 29
Glencoe 15, Weaver 14
Jacksonville 47, Hokes Bluff 20
Valley Head 55, Jacksonville Christian 40
Ohatchee 49, Pleasant Valley 14
Piedmont 39, Westbrook Christian 7
Ragland 23, Donoho 13
Wellborn 41, Ashville 40
Crossville 21, White Plains 13

By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today

No matter how tired it might have been at the end of an intense game, the Cleburne County defense knew it had to make one more play to win a region championship – and Trevor Houston made it.

The sophomore safety was reinserted into the lineup after a crucial penalty changed the complexion of the final play and he ran down Saks quarterback Quin Smith with 4.9 seconds to play to preserve the tenth-ranked Tigers’ 36-29 victory that clinched their second straight 4A Region 6 title.

“Tomorrow morning in the paper you’re going to look back at every article and somebody on somebody’s team made a play for a championship game that wasn’t a star,” Cleburne County coach Michael Shortt said. “It’ll be that way Sunday morning, Alabama or Auburn, somebody made a play that didn’t make it (big).

“That was a big play for us, for that to happen. But all the other kids made plays in order to get to that play. A lot of other plays had to be made to get to that one. For him to make that play everybody else did their job and he did his job.”

The stop was part of a furious final minute that featured gutsy plays, big gains and crucial penalties — just the kind of thing one might expect between two region heavyweights.

Both teams had lost their season openers and won six in a row. Both were ranked in the classification’s top 10. And both wanted to win very badly.

Cleburne County had taken the lead with less than three minutes to play, but with all three timeouts remaining Saks was far from finished.

Smith gave the fourth-ranked Wildcats life with a 12-yard gain on a fourth-and-8 from his 40. A pass interference penalty moved them further along and they appeared to have scored the game-tying touchdown when Smith hit Landun Peters on a 13-yard pass with 34 seconds left, but as he scrambled to find an open receiver Smith crossed the line of scrimmage before the throw.

That backed them up, but they moved back in position again with the help of a facemask penalty, but it wasn’t an automatic first down and didn’t give them enough yardage to move the chains so they faced fourth-and-1 from the 3 with 13 seconds left.

That’s when they got caught with 12 on the field – after a time out – and it set the stage for Houston’s heroics. Now, instead of a power play with burly Calvin Figueroa, who already had rushed for 204 yards in the game, the play was to create something with Smith.

The quarterback rolled right, but Houston was his problem. The safety had Smith in his grasp and not wanting to take a loss Smith threw a pass that fell harmlessly incomplete.

“I really didn’t have anybody to cover, there was nobody there, I saw him rolling out so I went for him and made the play,” Houston said. “Make the play or we’re not going to win this game.”

“It was all about the want to,” said Jeremiah Blake, who made big plays on both sides of the ball for the Tigers. “We had to bow up and try to make a stop. We had to hype ourselves up somehow. We knew the time on the clock and everything; it was all about the want-to with the defense.”

The wild finish was nothing like the start. The Tigers had a bus problem that caused them to arrive shortly before kickoff with limited warmup and they fell behind 21-3 as Saks scored on each of its first three possessions.

Easton Clark’s 29-yard touchdown run seemed to settle them, and Blake’s spectacular leaping catch in the end zone with 2:25 left in the half got them back in it.

“I told our players let’s just survive the onslaught, the first and second quarter,” Shortt said. “We felt good at halftime about where we were. They kept believing we could win and never quit. What a game to be a part of.”

The Tigers took their first lead on a Brock Swafford touchdown pass to Noah Ware in the third quarter and extended it on Blake’s 96-yard one-handed interception return in the fourth.

Saks tied it at 29 on Figueroa’s 2-yard touchdown run with 6:16 to play. Clark’s 22-yard touchdown run with 2:53 left gave Cleburne County its 36-29 lead.

“The finish was crazy, we had a chance there and called a play in the huddle and we had 12 kids run out there on the field,” Saks coach Jonathan Miller said. “That stuff happens. You don’t want that to happen coming out a time out, but one guy slipped in there who shouldn’t have been there.

“It’s something we can learn from, but (the game) didn’t come down to that last drive. We had a lot of opportunity throughout to win the game, we just didn’t. We didn’t make enough plays to win.”

Cleburne County 36, Saks 29

Cleburne Co. 3 13 6 14 — 36
Saks 14 7 0 8 — 29

C – Hunter Carlile 26 FG, 8:29 1Q
S – Demetrius Powell 56 pass from Quin Smith (Anthony Cornejo kick), 6:25 1Q
S – Calvin Figueroa 8 run (Cornejo kick), 0:23 1Q
S – Powell 9 pass from Smith (Cornejo kick), 7:17 2Q
C – Easton Clark 29 run (Carlile kick), 5:37 2Q
C – Jeremiah Blake 30 pass from Brock Swafford (kick failed), 1:09 2Q
C – Noah Ware 6 pass from Swafford (pass failed), 2:25 3Q
C – Blake 96 interception return (Carlile kick), 6:52 4Q
S – Figueroa 2 run (Figueroa run), 6:16 4Q
C – Clark 22 run (Carlile kick), 2:53 4Q

[table id=18 /]

On the cover: Cleburne County coach Michael Shortt reaches for Wade Dasinger (44) as the Tigers celebrate clinching the Class 4A Region 6 title. (Photo by Jonathan Fordham)

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