Panthers pounce
- Updated: August 26, 2022
Southside scores four touchdowns in the fourth quarter to break open a close game with rival Hokes Bluff
THURSDAY’S GAMES
AHSAA GAME OF THE WEEK
Southside-Gadsden 42, Hokes Bluff 7
STATEWIDE SCORES
CLASS 6A
Carver-Montgomery 27, Daphne 14
Chilton County 50, Jemison 0
Parker 34, Ramsay 18
CLASS 5A
B.C. Rain 20, Vigor 7
CLASS 4A
Cordova 35, Oakman 3
CLASS 3A
Monroe County 62, J.F. Shields 0
Northside Methodist 28, Cottonwood 26
CLASS 2A
Southeastern 40, Ragland 20
CLASS 1A
Alabama School for Deaf 38, Tennessee School for Deaf 6
Leroy 13, Clarke County 0
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
HOKES BLUFF – Southside quarterback Gauge NeSmith wasn’t sure how many Hokes Bluff defenders he ran past on his way to the end zone on his game-breaking touchdown in the fourth quarter Thursday night. They just all seemed like a green blur flying past his helmet.
NeSmith scored on a 33-yard run up the middle to touch off a big fourth-quarter uprising that carried the Panthers to a 42-7 win in their annual rivalry with the Eagles.
Until that point the game was rather sleepy, with the Panthers carrying a 14-7 lead into the fourth quarter. NeSmith’s score was the first of four Southside touchdowns in the quarter.
“Our thing is, and it’s on our wall, our biggest thing is they’re gonna break before we do,” Southside coach Miles Holcombe said. “We know the type of bunch we had to play tonight. They’re going to play us hard as anybody we play on our whole schedule because it’s a rivalry game. It means a ton to them and it means a ton to our kids. We knew we were going to have our hands full, but our guys kept battling.
“We felt good about our plan going in and once we kind of got going we felt like if we could get our guys in space we had a chance to be explosive and our guys did that. Ultimately, it ain’t about the plays, it’s about the players.”
It actually was five Eagles that NeSmith passed on the way to what would be his second touchdown of the half – one in the backfield, two at the line and two about 10 yards downfield.
His first score gave the Panthers a 14-7 lead. It came on the first snap after he zipped a 27-yard pass to Kody Kueny that got stopped just short of the goal line.
“I just toted that rock and put it in the end zone for my guys,” NeSmith said. “Once we scored that first one in the second half I knew our offense was going to start picking up right there. A lot of times we come back in the second half and do a lot better and we’ve got to fix that. It was slow at first, but the whole thing started to fire on all cylinders. We did better in the second half because we were more disciplined with the football.”
Before the fourth quarter was over, Scotty Motes fell on a bad punt snap that squirted into the end zone, Cody Roberts scored his second touchdown of the game on a 10-yard run after another fumble recovery and Mason Teague scored his first touchdown with the Panthers on a 62-yard after he had been pounding the inside all game.
Before his big run, Teague had gained 61 yards on 16 carries and finished with 123 total. He was sprung on the sideline by two blocks from Roberts.
“It was like all the hard work paid off, all the pressure just released off my shoulders and I felt great,” said Teague, who transferred from Glencoe. “I feel like a Panther now.”
“He’s an old-school guy,” Holcombe said. “He just puts his head down and goes to work. We got on the sideline after that last score and he said, ‘Dang, coach, I’ve got to get one’ and I was like, ‘you sure do.’ To be honest with you I didn’t think we were going to get one, but it was awesome to see him leak out the side and get one.”
The game was tight until the fourth quarter. The Panthers opened the scoring on a 3-yard touchdown run by Roberts in the first quarter and their defense turned back two time-consuming drives by Hokes Bluff in the second quarter to maintain a 7-0 halftime lead.
The first of the time-consuming drives ended in a missed a field goal that would have gotten the Eagles on the board and Koal Garrett ended the second with the first of his two interceptions on the final play of the half. The drives ate up so much time, Southside ran only one seven-play drive in the quarter.
The Eagles started the second half in rousing fashion when Conner Masters hooked up with Logan Wiemann on a 72-yard touchdown pass on the first play of the third quarter. It stayed tied until NeSmith’s first touchdown run five minutes later.
With the exception of the two big negative plays in the fourth quarter, the Eagles moved the ball. They gained 242 total yards. Noah Sprayberry rushed for 146 yards on 22 carries, bolstered by runs of 17, 37 and 41 yards.
It’s all about the shoes
It wasn’t hard to find Holcombe on the Southside sideline. He was the guy wearing the fluorescent green shoes.
The Panthers coach had the new kicks last week, but didn’t wear them because of the sloppy conditions. He chalked up their 21-7 loss to Guntersville on not having the shoes, but after beating their rival Thursday night on statewide TV, he might never take them off again.
“I’m not a big, kind of bland guy,” he said. “I like to change clothes. My kids made fun of me tonight because I wear something over here and then I’ll change before we do pre-game and then I’ll change again before the game.
“You see a lot of guys who signal with gloves, they’ve got a hat, I was like if we’re going to do it, let’s just get some highlighter Adidas shoes. My wife and I found these and she said do you want me to order them. I said yeah, I do. We try to do things a little bit different. Some people don’t love it, but it’s us.”
He could be in those shoes a while. They ordered two pair.
Southside 42, Hokes Bluff 7
| SOUTHSIDE (42) | HOKES BLUFF (7) | |
| 16 | 1st Downs | 12 |
| 31-224 | Rushes-yards | 39-171 |
| 9-14-0 | Comp-Att-Int | 4-11-2 |
| 107 | Passing yards | 71 |
| 0-0 | Fumbles-lost | 2-2 |
| 3-38.7 | Punts-avg. | 6-23.3 |
| 16-140 | Penalties-yds. | 5-35 |
| Southside (1-1) | 7 | 0 | 7 | 28 — | 42 |
| Hokes Bluff (0-1) | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 — | 7 |
S — Cody Roberts 3 run (Abdullah Allabassi kick), 1:17 1Q
HB — Logan Wiemann 72 pass from Conner Masters (Leon Chen kick), 11:39 3Q
S — Gauge NeSmith 1 run (Abdullah Allabassi kick), 6:33 3Q
S — Gauge NeSmith 33 run (Abdullah Allabassi kick), 10:23 4Q
S — Scotty Motes recovery in end zone (Abdullah Allabassi kick), 7:32 4Q
S — Cody Roberts 10 run (Abdullah Allabassi kick), 6:37 4Q
S — Mason Teague 62 run (Abdullah Allabassi kick), 3:05 4Q
You must be logged in to post a comment Login