Ohatchee in semis

By EASportsToday.com
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Updated: November 18, 2016

Indians earn a spot in the Class 3A semifinals, opposite region rival Piedmont, after blanking Randolph County 31-0

Ohatchee quarterback Taylor Eubanks (14) rebounded from a second-quarter fumble to score on two long touchdown runs in the second half. (Photos by Jeremy Wortham/Tiger Den Photography)

By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today

OHATCHEE (Nov. 18) — The game Ohatchee has been wanting for the last six weeks is here, and the stakes couldn’t be bigger.

The Indians earned a spot in the Class 3A state semifinals with a 31-0 shutout of Region 5 rival Randolph County Friday night in front of more than 1,300 at Roy C. Owens Field.

Their opponent is top-ranked defending state champion and Region 5 champion Piedmont on the road. The Bulldogs took a contentious 52-28 victory from Weaver, extending their state’s-longest winning streak to 23 games.

“It’s the next game on the schedule; it is the biggest game on the schedule,” Indians coach Scott Martin said.

It will be the first time two Calhoun County teams will have ever played this deep in the playoffs and only the fifth time in history they’ve ever met in postseason play. It will Ohatchee’s first trip to the semifinals since their state championship season of 1977.

It’s a game they’ve been looking forward to since the teams played a classic regular season game Oct. 14. Piedmont won that won 45-35, needing to convert a fourth-down run from midfield late in the game to keep a key scoring drive alive. It is the Indians’ only loss of the season.

“We really want to play them again,” running back Austin Tucker said. “I wanted them to win tonight so we could play them again.”

“Revenge is going to be sweet,” lineman Tristan Garcia said.

Ohatchee (12-1) dominated Friday’s game with a powerful running game and stout defense.

Quarterback Taylor Eubanks and running back Austin Tucker both ran for 178 yards. Eubanks, bouncing back from a fumble into the end zone in the second quarter of a tight game, had second-half touchdown runs of 66 and 35 yards. Tucker scored on a 57-yard run.

The fumble came at a time when Eubanks was going to score the Indians’ second touchdown of the game. It wasn’t even his fault. He was giving it a little extra to get in the end zone and the only reason the ball came out was because tight end Owen Hale’s helmet hit it.

“I know our running backs coach was upset, but it’s like I told those guys, he has made a million great plays for us this year,” Ohatchee coach Scott Martin said. “Every player, if you put them in enough situations is going to have a fumble or a turnover, especially your quarterback. The resiliency of him popping back out there and making the big play to open the (second) half just shows … we’re not going to stop feeding him and giving him opportunities.”

“When I fumbled I knew I had to step my game up and had to get it back somehow – and we did,” Eubanks said.
The Indians put Randolph County on its heels early by surprising everyone with passes for 53 total yards on their first two plays of the game. It prompted the Tigers to change their defensive posture and led to Jessie Sellers’ 13-yard touchdown run.

After that, they settled into their usual pattern of grinding it out on the ground. They threw only four more passes and rushed for 392 yards.

“I felt like we were going to need to give them some different looks early and loosen them on,” Martin said. “I felt like they’d be playing run early. I’d already said that’s what we’d be doing. It didn’t matter where we were on the field, it just mattered what hash we were on. Those two plays were dictated by the way the game started. Our kids came out and executed. They knew going into the game knowing what we were going to run and they came out and did a great job.”

The defense, meanwhile, gave Randolph County nothing. It held the Tigers to 53 yards net rushing, minus-18 in the fourth quarter. Appropriately, the game ended with Garcia sacking quarterback Brody Wortham on the final play.

“Aw, man, that just sealed the deal,” Garcia said. “It put the nail in the coffin.”

It was the Indians’ fourth ever playoff shutout and first since 1984.

“We stepped it up tonight,” Tucker said. “I can’t believe we got a shutout.”

Martin said the defense earned a game ball for their game-winning performance. The defense, no doubt, will be looking for wings from Jefferson’s, its reward for its last shutout — 21-0 over Wellborn, the game before they played Piedmont.

“Our defense won this football game,” Ohatchee coach Scott Martin said. “They never did break. Gave us opportunity after opportunity. Defensively we just played lights out. I’m just so excited about how well our defense played. They’ve got to get the game ball after this one.”

Ohatchee 31, Randolph County 0

Randolph County 0 0 0 0 — 0
Ohatchee 7 3 7 14 — 31

O – Jessie Sellers 13 run (Gage Harrell kick), 10:30 1Q
O – Gage Harrell 25 FG, 2:12 2Q
O – Taylor Eubanks 66 run (Gage Harrell kick), 9:21 3Q
O – Taylor Eubanks 35 run (Gage Harrell kick), 7:52 4Q
O – Austin Tucker 57 run (Gage Harrell kick), 5:05 4Q

Team stats RC Ohat
First downs 19 12
Rushes-yds 35-53 44-392
Passing 7-20-1 2-6-1
Passing yds 100 53
Fumbles-lost 1-0 1-0
Punts-avg 8-40.5 3-30.0
Penalties-yds 9-71 3-25

Ohatchee lineman Tristan Garcia chases down Randolph County quarterback Brody Wortham, just like he did on the final play of the game Friday night. (Jeremy Wortham/TigerDen Photography)