Rain can’t dampen Tribe

By EASportsToday.com
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Updated: September 3, 2016

Ohatchee overcomes heavy rain, tough opponent and early turnovers to win its region opener, remain undefeated

Ohatchee’s C.J. Ray hauls in a pass with two Randolph County defenders hanging on him. On the cover, a Randolph County player plays on through the rain. (All photos by Jeremy Wortham/Tiger Den Photography)

By East Alabama Sports Today

WEDOWEE – Neither rain, nor wind, nor the threat of lightning could keep the undefeated Ohatchee Indians from their appointed rounds Friday night.

The Indians survived all of that – and a 90-minute weather-related delay – to beat Class 3A newcomer Randolph County 34-6 in the Region 5 opener for both teams. The Indians are 3-0 for the first time since 2001.

“Obviously that feels good, but it feels better being 1-0 in the region,” Ohatchee coach Scott Martin said. “It was a big win for us just because it’s against a good, quality football team that were state semifinalists in 2A last year and put a good team on the field every year. If you told 34-6 before we came here I would have laughed.”

The game was played in horrible conditions, “every bit as bad” as some of the worst Martin could recall playing in back in his days in Louisiana. This hard rain, remnants of Hurricane Hermine, started right at kickoff and continued relentlessly through a lightning delay. There were discussions of suspending the game and picking it back up the next day, a solution Martin did not favor.

“I hadn’t been in that hard a rain consistently for a whole game in a long, long time,” he said.

Randolph County took advantage of two early Ohatchee turnovers to grab the early lead, but the Indians snatched it right before the delay early in the second quarter. The Indians then scored two more touchdowns after the teams returned to the field for a 21-6 halftime lead.

“We had a lot of adversity we had to overcome,” Martin said. “When we went inside, I told the coaches and the players we had so much adversity so early in the game and to still be leading 7-6 I felt pretty confident about that. But I wanted our focus to be better and we came out and played lights out the rest of the game.

“Once we came back out we stepped on the pedal a little bit. We made a statement early in the second quarter and held our own the whole second half.”

The Indians got some big games offensively across the board. Austin Tucker rushed for 141 yards and two touchdowns. Jessie Sellers rushed for 131 yards and one touchdown. Quarterback Taylor Eubanks passed for one touchdown and ran for another.

Trent Lane led the Tigers with 91 yards rushing. Seth Hannah, who scored their only touchdown, had 31 yards rushing.

OHATCHEE 34, RANDOLPH COUNTY 6

Ohatchee 0 21 6 7 — 34
Randolph Co. 6 0 0 0 — 6

R – Seth Hannah 5 run (kick failed)
O – Austin Tucker 10 pass from Taylor Eubanks (Christian Fitch kick)
O – Taylor Eubanks 2 run (Christian Fitch kick)
O – Austin Tucker 2 run (Christian Fitch kick)
O – Jessie Sellers 44 run (run failed)
O – Austin Tucker 3 run (Christian Fitch kick)

Team stats Ohat Rand
First downs 17 9
Rushes-yds 48-362 34-152
Comp-Att-Int 2-2-0 4-15-0
Passing yds 63 24
Fumbles-lost 2-2 1-1
Punts-avg 3-23-2 5-39.0
Penalties-yds 1-15 6-35