AISA CHAMPIONSHIPS: Lee-Scott, Patrician take home state titles
Lee-Scott Academy earned its first state title since 1994 with a win over Glenwood on Thursday at Cramton Bowl. (Tim Gayle)
COMBINED REPORTS
Lee-Scott Academy would manage just 84 yards and a pair of first downs in the second half, but 65 of those yards came on one decisive play that allowed the Warriors to hold off Glenwood 35-21 and win the Alabama Independent School Association Class AAA championship game at Cramton Bowl on Thursday night.
Glenwood’s defense had held the Warriors in check since the middle of the second quarter, while the offense turned the ball over on downs in the red zone and scored on its next possession to trim the Lee-Scott lead to 28-14.
With their last three possessions accounting for just nine yards, the Warriors were in desperate need of a spark. Alex Cash supplied the spark, outjumping a Glenwood defender for a Pelzer Reaves’ pass and then sprinting down the sideline to complete a 65-yard play. A facemask penalty on the tackle moved the ball to the Glenwood 8 and George Meyers scored four plays later to help the Warriors regain the momentum.
“It’s designed to go to the wingback or the backside drag,” Lee-Scott coach Buster Daniel said, “and ‘Pels’ saw our receiver had beaten the cornerback and just threw it up to him. I asked him on the sideline and he told me it slipped but when you’ve got a 6-foot-5 receiver, it pays off.”
The play was the decisive blow to thwart the Gators’ rally after falling behind early 21-0.
“We had a guy in position to make a play,” Glenwood coach Ryan Nelson said. “No. 82 (Cash) went up and high-pointed the ball and made a good play on us. Personally, I thought we had a chance to make the interception there.”
The first half, it was all Lee-Scott as the Warriors scored on their first three possessions for a 21-0 lead. Andrew Hahn ran 37 yards on the third play of the game, Jake White ran 35 yards on a fourth-and-three play minutes later and Meyers added another scoring run after the Warriors recovered a fumble on the ensuing kickoff.
“I really felt like our guys were shell shocked early,” Nelson said. “I credit our guys, we came back, we found a way to score, down 28-7 … and we take the opening drive right down and we’re probably about three inches from hitting Mason (McCraine) in the middle of the field on fourth down. If we had punched that one in, I think the ballgame’s a little different.
“But give them credit. They got off the bus, we didn’t.”
After Lee-Scott accounted for 205 rushing yards in the first half, the Gators flipped the script in the second half with the help of the opening drive of the third quarter, driving as deep as the Lee-Scott 8 before Dallas Crow’s fourth-down pass was too high for McCraine.
“It’s hard to beat a really good football team twice in one year,” Daniel said. “And that goes true for every level of play. They didn’t do anything different, we didn’t do anything different, it’s just the fact that beating them twice in a year is really hard.”
Glenwood (8-4) lost to a pair of Georgia teams and Lee-Scott twice this season after reaching the finals for the third time in four years. Lee-Scott (12-0) reached the finals for the first time since 2012 and won its first state championship since 1994.
“My sophomore year, we won two games,” Lee-Scott senior Dalan Bush said. “My junior year, we lost three games and then my senior year we don’t lose a single game. I couldn’t ask for any better. It just shows all the hard work you put in really does pay off.”
Patrician runs to the Class AA state championship with a win over Clarke Prep on Thursday at Cramton Bowl. (Tim Gayle)
PATRICIAN 60, CLARKE PREP 0
It was a simple dive play to run out the clock, but Patrician Academy running back Carson Coody ended up in the end zone 90 yards away instead.
“I can’t give my line enough credit,” Coody said. “If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t have nothing. They’re great. They don’t get what they deserve. They deserve it all.”
Patrician Academy’s offensive line helped the Saints roll up 661 total yards, including 533 on the ground, in a 60-0 win over Clarke Prep for the AISA Class AA state championship at Cramton Bowl on Thursday afternoon.
Patrician (13-0) won its ninth state title in the process, but its first since 2017. The Saints were 0-3 in their previous postseason meetings with Clarke Prep.
“We got beat in the first round my 10th grade year, second round last year,” Patrician quarterback Tate Boykin said. “It’s hard to win like that. I’ve been waiting for this a long time.”
The two region rivals met just four weeks ago, with Patrician cruising to a 48-7 win. Thursday’s game was more of the same as the Saints built a 33-0 halftime lead – thanks, in part, to Coody’s clock-beating sprint in the final seconds of the first half -- while holding Clarke Prep to 14 total yards in the game.
“They’re so good up front,” Clarke Prep coach Ashley Carlisle said. “That’s where they beat people. They’ve got great backs, too, but they beat people up front. They’re so physical, they’re ruthless as far as they’re attacking, they just do a good job playing football. They’re just hard to handle.”
And for the second time in a month, the Saints dominated both sides of the ball against the Gators.
“After you beat them once, you think, well, we don’t have to make too many adjustments,” Patrician coach Jonathan Lindsey said. “We’ve just got to play our game when we don’t know what they’re going to do to get better for us. The players, we put a lot on them this week, especially defensively. They responded and they executed.”
Whatever Clarke Prep’s offensive game plan was, it never materialized. The Gators made a first down on their third offensive play, then didn’t get another first down until late in the third quarter. By then, they were trailing 40-0.
“We thought we could get some stuff off in the short game early, but they’re just so good up front,” Carlisle said. “Every time we snap the ball, we’ve got somebody in our face. You shut down the run and we can’t throw the ball. They almost had us in a vice offensively. Defensively, we misaligned a couple of times but they’re just so physical. The most physical teams win the football game 90 percent of the time and that was the case tonight.
“I’ll put Patrician up against any team playing here (in the AISA championships) today and I think they come out with a win. They’re just a quality football team.”
Coody finished with 190 yards on 15 carries, adding another 89 yards and a touchdown on three receptions. Boykin completed 4 of 6 passes for 128 yards and a touchdown, while scoring the game’s first two touchdowns on a pair of 4-yard runs.
Clarke Prep (9-4) made a strong turnaround from last year’s 2-9 season, losing only to A finalists Jackson and Lowndes and to Patrician twice.
“We’re probably the only team up here that everybody didn’t have penciled in at the beginning of the year,” Carlisle said. “For us to bounce back from the season we had last year and then they come and knock off some good teams on the way and become state runner-up is a big step ahead in our program.”
Clarke Prep senior Jones Skipper agreed.
“All I can say is we made it here and nobody believed in us,” Skipper said. “We had one person vote us in the top 10 at the beginning of the year and now we get to go home, second place in AA in the state of Alabama in AISA. I’ll take that nine times out of 10.”