CCC BATTLE: ACA tops Montgomery Academy after offense switch
ACA quarterback Christian Snipes meets MA’s Parker Cook in Friday’s matchup at McLemore Field. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
Alabama Christian Academy waited until Friday night to unveil their new offensive scheme with sophomore Christian Snipes at quarterback.
Snipes, and a fortunate bounce of the ball, arrived on the same night at McLemore Field as the Eagles spoiled Montgomery Academy’s homecoming in a 28-20 win on Friday night.
Snipes had lost the quarterback battle to AC Walters in the spring, but continued to hone his craft at the junior varsity level in late August and early September.
“I was just coming to practice every day, trying to get better,” Snipes said. “I trusted my coaches and I trusted my teammates. We knew we could do this, we just had to show it. We came out here and played hard.”
By the middle of the month, Alabama Christian coach Michael Summers was ready to give Snipes a chance. But he waited three weeks for the right moment, feeling Montgomery Academy’s inexperienced defensive front could be exploited.
“Just his play on junior varsity, but not only his play but his demeanor,” Summers said of the decision to start Snipes on Friday night. “The kid’s just a leader. He takes command of a huddle. That’s not saying anything’s wrong with ‘1’ (Walters) but ‘1’ is more comfortable at running back. Christian has the ability to run the ball, but he’s gotten more comfortable throwing the ball.”
ACA would break a scoreless tie in the second quarter with touchdown runs of 77 and 15 yards by David Ortiz-Ramirez, but it was the third quarter was Snipes’ ability was pivotal. Montgomery Academy had owned the ball for 17 minutes and 47 seconds of the 24-minute first half, so ACA had not had the ability to put the game plan to work.
The first possession of the second half provided the opportunity as Snipes ran for 4 yards, passed to Jackson Burton for 12, handed off to Walters for 8, ran for 5 more, completed passes of 4 yards to Ortiz-Ramirez and 8 yards to Bryant Swindle, ran for 6 more and hit Swindle with a slant-in over the middle for the final 15 yards.
Then, a short kickoff by Tyson Summers fell in an open space and Jaylan McCovery recovered the kick for ACA. Snipes kept on six of the ensuing plays, including a 3-yard touchdown run with 4:29 remaining to give ACA a 28-7 lead.
“That’s something we looked at on film,” Summers said of the kickoff. “They were real open in the middle. We actually tried to do it the first kick of the game. We kicking to space -- we didn’t want to kick it to ‘12’ (Chase Wilson) or ‘2’ (DJ Vinson) -- so we thought we could get a hop and we got a hop.”
“Any time you give a team another drive, that’s going to be a pretty big problem,” Montgomery Academy coach Ethan McBride said. “We’ll get better at that. It’s not like it’s a surprise when the ball went there, we just didn’t execute on covering it.”
Montgomery Academy would answer with a 3-yard run by Will Hardin -- after Hardin’s 41-yard catch moved the ball to the ACA 12-yard line -- but Montgomery Academy was running out of time and couldn’t seem to stop Snipes, who finished with 96 yards on 16 carries.
“They were spying our running backs, which I don’t blame them, but when they were doing that, it was leaving the pull (for the quarterback to keep the ball) wide open,” Summers said. “He’s getting hit at four yards -- and he’s a big kid who is hard to bring down -- and he’s getting hit at four and gaining eight.”
Ortiz-Ramirez had 116 yards on eight carries and Walters had 81 yards on 23 carries, but if Montgomery Academy tried to concentrate on either runner, the 225-pound Snipes would simply run up the middle.
“Unfortunately, our run defense, right now, doesn’t have the ability to stop somebody for zero yards,” McBride said. “Our entire front line is either a freshman or a sophomore. We’re a little skinny. That’ll change with time, but right now we’ve got to do a better job of when the ball does bounce, make the tackle.”
Hardin would score another touchdown to pull within 28-20 with 2:27 left as Montgomery Academy started finding ways to get the ball to junior receiver DJ Vinson, who had 122 yards on six receptions.
“We double-teamed him all night,” Summers said. “He’s a really good player. We knew at some point he would make a play. Our whole plan was to jam him. Just as they were spying our running backs, we had a guy in the middle of the field spying him. He had two and sometimes three guys on him all night. He affected our defense because we’re a four-front and we were in a three-front all night because of him.”
Vinson made his most impressive move on a bubble screen with seconds remaining in the first half. He caught the ball heading toward the middle of the field, seamlessly cut back outside and broke through several tackles on the way to the end zone to complete a 39-yard play as time expired.
“He’s insanely talented,” McBride said. “Look at what he did with that screen with eight seconds left. He broke five tackles. People are going to continue to (devise defensive schemes to limit him). There’s a solid case to be made that he’s up there as the best receiver, definitely in this area but I would argue in the state.”
He wouldn’t get another chance after Hardin’s second touchdown. ACA recovered the onside kick and ran out the clock. And while Snipes had a big run on ACA’s final possession as well, he recognized the recovery of the uncovered kickoff played a pivotal role in his team’s success.
“That was huge,” he said, “because it gave us a lot of momentum in the second half. I really give the credit to my defense and the O-line because without both of them we wouldn’t have been able to do this.”
Defensively, Hardin led Montgomery Academy with 10 tackles and a fumble recovery. David Whisenhunt had nine tackles, Graham Martin had eight tackles and forced a fumble and Parker Cook had six tackles and a pass breakup. The Eagles remain home to play Catholic next week.
William Milner and Lane Smith each had eight tackles to lead ACA, followed by Burton with seven and Darrius Gardner with six tackles and a pair of sacks. The Eagles return home to play St. James next week.