Making their own history
- Updated: October 5, 2019
Class 3A roundup: Pleasant Valley scores first-ever win at Glencoe; Piedmont, Wellborn on pace for showdown
By East Alabama Sports Today
GLENCOE – Jonathan Nix likes to send his Pleasant Valley football team into each game with a little history lesson for context. The way things are going this season, the Raiders are about to make a little history themselves.
The Raiders won their fourth straight game Friday night, beating Glencoe 47-7 to remain tied for third place in the Class 3A Region 6 standings.
They are now 5-1, matching their total number of wins from the year before. The four-game winning streak matches their longest last year. But that’s not the history lesson Nix imparted upon them this week.
“I’m always trying to pull up some kind of history lesson for the kids about how you can be a different team,” Nix said. “One thing us coaches found this week was our record at Glencoe. This was our sixth trip and the first five trips we were 0-5 and the average score was 35-1. We’d only scored one touchdown at Glencoe.
“I was real proud of the kids coming to somebody else’s field, playing with urgency, playing as a team.”
As the score indicated, the Raiders dominated the game. They held the Yellow Jackets to negative yards and roared to a 41-0 halftime lead.
Colton East scored PV’s first two touchdowns and later caught a Brody Phillips pass for a third. Phillips threw two more touchdown passes to Colby Nelson and Drake Hardy ran for his first touchdown of the season. Phillips was 7-of-8 for 90 yards passing in the first half.
Dalton Mize recovered his second fumble of the game in the third quarter, this time in the end zone, for PV’s final score.
If they can beat B.B. Comer next week, they will become the winningest team at Pleasant Valley since the 6-5 team in 2008. Only five teams in the history of the school has won as many as six games in a season. The school record for wins is eight.
“I want this group of seniors to know that they are special, so they kind of get into that we were able to be the first team to do this,” Nix said. “Our No. 1 goal is to be the first team to win a playoff game at Pleasant Valley. That’s what their summer motto was. Everything they’re doing is not just to get to the playoffs but are you ready when you’re in the playoffs where you can go and compete and win a playoff game.”
Piedmont 38, Saks 16
Ethan Swinford did just about it all for second-ranked Piedmont.
The senior caught two of Jack Hayes’ three touchdown passes, returned the second-half kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown and rushed for 80 yards as the Bulldogs crushed Saks to remain undefeated and tied for the lead in Class 3A Region 6.
The Bulldogs (6-0) ran their regular-season winning streak to 10 in a row. Their last regular-season loss came to Saks a year ago this weekend.
Swinford caught three passes for 109 yards. He hooked up with Hayes for the Bulldogs’ first two touchdowns, covering 47 and 53 yards in the first quarter. Hayes threw his third touchdown pass on the next possession, eight seconds into the second quarter, a 19-yarder to Silas Thompson. The freshman quarterback was 11-of-17 for 177 yards and a pass efficiency rating of 210.40 (NCAA).
Elijah Johnson scored on a 1-yard run with 8:22 left in the second quarter and Bryce Mohon kicked a 27-yard field goal with 3:47 left to give the Bulldogs a 31-0 halftime lead. Johnson led the Bulldogs in rushing 131 yards on six carries.
Swinford’s second-half kickoff return made it 38-0. It was the third game in a row the Bulldogs have returned a kickoff for a touchdown.
Saks (2-4) scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter to avoid being shut out. The Wildcats have lost three in a row.
| Pied (38) | Saks (16) | |
| 12 | 1st Downs | 9 |
| 238 | Rushing | 96 |
| 11-17-0 | C-A-I | 6-11-1 |
| 177 | Passing | 58 |
| 0-0 | Fum-Lost | 0-0 |
| 3-39.0 | Punts | 7-32.0 |
| 0 | Pen Yds | 17 |
Piedmont 14 17 7 0 – 38
Saks 0 0 0 16 – 16
Scoring plays
P – Ethan Swinford 47 pass from Jack Hayes (kick failed), 8:33 1Q
P – Ethan Swinford 53 pass from Jack Hayes (Silas Thompson pass from Jack Hayes), 1:23 1Q
P – Silas Thompson 19 pass from Jack Hayes (Bryce Mohon kick), 11:52 2Q
P – Elijah Johnson 1 run (Bryce Mohon kick), 8:22 2Q
P – Bryce Mohon 27 FG, 3:47 2Q
P – Ethan Swinford 95 kickoff return (Bryce Mohon kick), 11:42 3Q
S – Rickey Garrett 1 run (conversion good), 9:36 4Q
S – Leonta Jones 30 pass from Sean Parnell (conversion good), 5:08 4Q
Wellborn 56, B.B. Comer 26
SYLACAUGA – Bryson Heath rushed for 139 yards and three touchdowns and Wellborn broke away from a close game with 35 points in the second half to run past B.B. Comer and clinch its first Class 3A playoff berth since 2015.
The eighth-ranked Panthers (7-0), winners of seven games for the first time since 2014 and 7-0 for the first time since 1994, had four runners with at least 83 yards rushing and rushed for 494 yards as a team. Quarterback Jett Smith rushed for 137 yards and a touchdown, Calvin Spinks rushed for 83 yards and Kentrez Hunt rushed for 98 yards and two scores.
Spinks returned the opening kickoff 85 yards for a touchdown, but the Panthers were locked in a battle the rest of the half and only went into the break with a 21-18 lead. The big second-half run started with Hunt’s pick-six two minutes into the third quarter.
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