Ohatchee ‘came to win’
- Updated: October 2, 2021
Reeling Indians needed something good to happen to them, staged fourth-quarter rally to upset No. 2 Piedmont
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
OHATCHEE —The Ohatchee Indians, a team in desperate need of something good to happen to it after a tumultuous couple of weeks, got just the boost they needed Friday night.
Still playing under the cloud of their head coach’s administrative leave, the Indians rallied from a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit to upset No. 2 Piedmont 28-24 on the Creekbank.
The win also drew the Indians (3-3, 3-1) into a four-way tie for first place in Class 3A Region 5 with the Bulldogs (5-1, 3-1), Saks (6-1, 3-1) and Hokes Bluff (3-3, 3-1)
“This was huge, a big boost,” acting head coach Chris Findley said. “These guys have been through a lot, our coaching staff has been through a lot, our players have been through a lot. This is a big morale boost at least.”
The Indians were shocked hours before their first big region game with Saks two weeks ago when head coach Scott Martin was placed on administrative leave while administrators investigate what’s been called an “internal incident,” with no indication when the situation would be resolved.
They lost that night and then had last week open before facing the Bulldogs. They’ve had no contact with their head coach since the incident and brought former assistant Bryant Ginn back to coach the secondary and replenish the staff.
“We got back to work; that’s all we knew to do,” Findley said. “We’re just here working. The same coaching staff’s here – coach (Blake) Jennings is still running the defense, I just took over running the offense. We’ve just tried to keep rolling.
“We came to win. We believe in ourselves as a football team. I know we were 2-3 coming into this, but we believe we’re a better football team than that. We like where we think we can get.”
The Indians trailed 21-7 early in the third quarter and 24-14 after Sloan Smith kicked a 24-yard field goal with 3:25 left in the quarter.
Quarterback Eli Ennis scored two long touchdown runs in the fourth quarter to give Ohatchee the lead. His 41-yarder with 10:42 to play got them within 24-21 and his 84-yarder with 6:55 to play put them in front.
Ennis rushed for 148 yards in the fourth quarter and 227 yards in the game. He also scored the game’s first touchdown on a 31-yard run. He has rushed for at least 195 yards in every game this season and currently has 1,232 yards rushing for the season.
“One of the things we talked about this week as far keys to victory was getting him to the ground,” Piedmont coach Steve Smith said. “He had three long runs tonight for touchdowns and No. 11 (Devin Howell) had one from them on a long run (66 yards).
“That’s what we try to preach all the time on the defensive side: You can’t give up big plays. And tonight we just didn’t do a good job on those plays and their guys made the plays. That’s something obviously we need to work on and get fixed.”
Once the Indians got the lead, it was up to Jennings’ defense to protect it. Malachi Goble stopped a double reverse with Austin Estes and Omarion Foster on fourth-and-6 from the Ohatchee 20 with 1:16 to go, then the Indians defended two passes in the final four seconds to seal as important a victory under the circumstances as they’ve had during their resurgence under Martin.
“This means everything,” Ennis said. “We had all this adversity and to come out here and do this, playing as good a game as we did, it’s amazing.
“Coach was telling us you’ve just to forget about it, worry about who we’ve got and what we’ve got to do, so we did.”
Before the Indians’ fourth-quarter rally, Jack Hayes seemed to have Piedmont on the verge of seizing control of the region. He scored two touchdowns and threw for another through the first three quarters.
He finished the game 14-of-21 for 223 yards passing and 96 yards rushing. Estes caught eight passes for 158 yards and a touchdown.
“We felt like we were going to win the game, but we didn’t get it done,” Smith said. “Fell a little short. Credit Ohatchee, they played really well, did what they had to do. You’ve got to finish it. We just didn’t get it done.
‘We knew it was a big game. I thought we played hard the whole night and played well for a good majority of the night. We just had some breakdowns there at the end and didn’t finish drives and then didn’t get 4 (Ennis) on the ground.”
Ohatchee 28, Piedmont 24
| Piedmont (5-1, 3-1) | 7 | 7 | 10 | 0 – | 24 |
| Ohatchee (3-3, 3-1) | 7 | 0 | 7 | 14 – | 28 |
O – Eli Ennis 31 run (Brent Honaker kick), 7:53 1Q
P – Austin Estes 22 pass from Jack Hayes (Sloan Smith kick), 5:07 1Q
P – Jack Hayes 2 run (Sloan Smith kick), 0:30 2Q
P – Jack Hayes 1 run (Sloan Smith kick), 8:32 3Q
O – Devin Howell 66 run (Brent Honaker kick), 7:33 3Q
P – Sloan Smith 24 FG, 3:25 3Q
O – Eli Ennis 41 run (Brent Honaker kick), 10:42 4Q
O – Eli Ennis 84 run (Brent Honaker kick), 6:55 4Q
| Pied (24) | Ohat (28) | |
| 16 | 1st D | 8 |
| 36-152 | Rush | 36-307 |
| 14-21-0 | C-A-I | 0-1-0 |
| 223 | Pass | 0 |
| 2-1 | F-L | 1-0 |
| 1-29.0 | Punts | 4-32.7 |
| 3-30 | Pens | 1-5 |
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