Saks makes Oakman see red
- Updated: November 12, 2021
Wildcats quarterback Parnell has big game, leads Saks to Round 2 victory after a quick jersey change
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
The Saks players had a lot of fun this week calling Jalen McCants “Superman” after his five-touchdown game in the Wildcats’ playoff opener with Plainview. Quarterback Sean Parnell took part in all that and he wanted an MCU character.
You can just call him Iron Man this week.
It was Parnell’s turn to do superhero stuff for the Wildcats Friday night in the second round of the Class 3A playoffs. He rushed for 108 yards, passed for 183 and accounted for all five touchdowns to carry Saks past Oakman 36-22 at Jack Stewart Field.
The Wildcats (11-1) will play at Fyffe (10-1) next week in Round 3.
Parnell had touchdown runs for 2, 5 and 6 yards and threw touchdown passes of 57 yards to Shon Elston and 51 yards to McCants against the Region 6 runner-ups. He touched the ball on every snap, but his number was called 32 times.
“Y’all called Jalen Superman last week, so we’ve been calling him Superman all week,” Parnell said. “So, if you’ve got 100 soldiers with regular ARs and you’ve got Superman, everybody’s going to be staring at Superman. All eyes were on Jalen tonight and it just opened everything up for me.”
“Our kids have been messing with Jalen all week about the Superman thing,” Saks coach Jonathan Miller said. “They’ve called themselves anything from Batman to Robin to Iron Man, Spiderman. Every kid has a character after last week.”
OK, so who does Parnell want to be in the Marvel Universe.
“Iron Man died, didn’t he?” Parnell asked. “I’m Thanos, that’s who I want to be. Iron Man probably is my favorite, though. I like his personality.”
The game got off to a distracting start for the Wildcats. They came out after warmups in grey jerseys and were immediately sent back to the dressing room by the officials to change since the color looked too close to the white Indianapolis Colts-style jerseys Oakman wore.
The Wildcats had been wearing those grey jerseys for the last four years — and several times at home this season — but they weren’t going to fly on this night. They returned to the field after a quick change into their red jerseys and after a slow start dominated the night.
They gave up two long touchdown runs to Kaedyn Marchbanks on their first two defensive drives, but after that the Wildcats held Oakman to 91 yards the rest of the game. Most of those yards came on a 43-yard screen pass in the third quarter.
“Some of our coaches were worried about our kids up there getting in too big of a hurry,” Miller said. “By the time I got up there, the coaches had the jerseys out, they were putting them on. We just didn’t want them to get frazzled. We changed super quick and we took a breath before we came back down.”
If there was a turning point, it came midway through the second quarter. The Wildcats had just tied the game on Parnell’s second touchdown run and Gavin Doss’ two-point conversion and Region 6 runner-ups were driving to answer back.
But the Wildcats turned back Oakman quarterback Baylor Odom on a fourth-and-inches and on the very next play, at his urging “to take a shot,” Parnell went up top to Shon Elston for their 57-yard touchdown pass. Saks never trailed again.
“It was a play we wanted to run at some point in the game, either in plus territory or after a big momentum-changing play like that fourth-down stop,” Miller said. “We practice that play 100 times and the kids just executed. It changed the momentum no doubt.”
The Wildcats averted potential disaster with about five minutes left in the third quarter when Dorrien Walker scooped up a bad punt snap and ran it out of the end zone to avoid a safety. He still didn’t get the yard to gain, but the Wildcats retained possession when Oakman was hit with a targeting penalty along the sideline.
The hit peeled part of the ‘S’ decal off Walker’s helmet. Had the penalty not happened, Oakman would have been set up in the red zone for a potential game-tying touchdown. Instead, the possession continued and the Wildcats drove for Parnell’s fifth touchdown that gave them a 36-22 lead.
The Wildcats were coming off a wild opening-round victory in which they were caught up in a shootout for four quarters, then made a big defensive play in the final minute to seal it. Both Miller and Parnell said that experience helped the team get through Friday night.
“Last week’s game, being so close like it was, that really showed us we can lose and we have to take this seriously,” Parnell said. “When adversity hits we can’t lose our focus. Last week’s game taught us a lot inside, to stay together as a team and not let little things affect us.”
Saks 36, Oakman 22
| Oakman (9-3) | 14 | 0 | 8 | 0 — | 22 |
| Saks (11-1) | 6 | 16 | 8 | 6 — | 36 |
O — Kaedyn Marchbanks 35 run (Kaedyn Marchbanks kick), 8:19 1Q
S — Sean Parnell 2 run (run failed), 2:58 1Q
O — Kaedyn Marchbanks 59 run (Kaedyn Marchbanks kick), 1:57 1Q
S — Sean Parnell 5 run (Gavin Doss run), 7:41 2Q
S — Shon Elston 57 pass from Sean Parnell (Sean Parnell run), 3:40 2Q
S — Jalen McCants 51 pass from Sean Parnell (Shon Elston pass from Jalen McCants), 9:42 3Q
O — Jy Henderson 8 pass from Baylor Odom (Jy Henderson pass from Baylor Odom), 6:08 3Q
S — Sean Parnell 6 run (run failed), 10:49 4Q
| Oak (22) | Saks (36) | |
| 7 | 1st Downs | 19 |
| 23-120 | Rushes-yds | 46-200 |
| 5-10-1 | Comp-Att-Int | 6-11-0 |
| 84 | Passing yds | 183 |
| 0-0 | Fumbles-lost | 1-0 |
| 2-26.5 | Punts-avg | 1-32.0 |
| 6-55 | Penalties-yds | 10-79 |
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