CLASS 3A, REGION 2 BATTLE: ACA gets key win over Wicksburg
ACA’S AC Walters makes the grab in front of Wicksburg’s Teagan Fowler in the Eagles win on Friday. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
Nobody had to tell Alabama Christian’s players what was on the line.
After losing to Houston Academy, the Eagles were in fifth place, trailing four teams with 4-1 region records, including Friday opponent Wicksburg. Only the top four teams in each region make the playoffs.
“We definitely know we have to come in here and win,” ACA junior Jackson Burton said, “because the season doesn’t end after the 10th game. We’re going for the playoffs. We know we have to win this game. We were hungry, that’s for sure.”
Wicksburg jumped out to a 13-0 lead before ACA scored the next 43 points to turn the Class 3A Region 2 battle into a 64-19 rout at Faulkner’s John Mark Stallings Field on Friday night.
“This group is pretty good with their back against the wall,” ACA coach Michael Summers said. “They knew the importance.”
With the win, ACA (4-3) pulled into a tie for fourth place in the region with Wicksburg and own the head-to-head tiebreaker with the Panthers should the two teams finish tied.
It didn’t look that way early. Wicksburg scored two plays into the game on a 52-yard pass from John Cole to an uncovered Logan Andrew Colon, threatened to take control of the game on its next two possessions, then scored on a Teagan Fowler run on the third play of the second quarter for a 13-0 lead.
“They did a lot of stuff the first two drives we had not seen (on film),” Summers said. “They had a really good game plan coming out. They kind of punched us in the mouth the first two drives, then we scored 64 points in 23 minutes of game time.”
About the only thing that went in Alabama Christian’s favor during that stretch was Jordan Sanders’ block of Tyler Munoz’s extra point, leaving the score at 13-0.
“We weren’t doing our assignment defensively,” Summers said. “I don’t know what our problem was offensively. I felt like if we could ever get rolling, they would have a hard time stopping us, it was just making sure they didn’t hold the ball for the entire first half.”
Through the first 13 minutes of the game, Wicksburg had eight first downs and 152 total yards, while ACA had one first down and minus 7 total yards.
“It kind of shocked us,” Burton said. “We didn’t come out ready to play. It took a couple of plays, we had some momentum swings and once we got the snowball rolling down the hill, it was over.”
The final 11 minutes of the first half, however, would feature a change of mometum as the Panthers had a trio of three and outs, starting at their own 7, 1 and 22 yard line after misplaying Tyson Summers’ kickoffs.
“We try to find holes on kickoffs,” Summers said. “They had seen us punching it around and I guess they assumed we didn’t have the ability to kick it deep. We were kicking to the hole and that was the hole.”
Christian Snipes connected with David Ortiz-Ramirez on a 35-yard touchdown pass, then AC Walters hit Burton with a 16-yard pass and added scoring runs of 8 and 2 yards to turn a 13-0 deficit into a 29-13 halftime lead.
Burton opened the second half with touchdown receptions of 22 yards from Snipes and 8 yards from Walters to help the Eagles build a 43-13 lead three minutes into the second half.
“They were double-teaming AC,” Summers said. “Jackson has been good for us all year. He doesn’t have the high-end speed some of the other guys do, but Jackson has made some really big catches and been very, very dependable.”
Burton had five receptions for 63 yards and three touchdowns on offense, while recording a team-high seven tackles and an interception from his linebacker position.
“I came away with three touchdowns, but I have to give it to the guys around me,” Burton said. “AC is over there getting triple-teamed and David is a big threat in the backfield. When I see what they’re looking at, I just make my read off of that. The guys around me get me open and a great job by the O-line holding up.”
Ortiz-Ramirez added touchdown runs of 8 and 77 yards and Sanders had a 45-yard interception return for a touchdown as well, all coming in a 35-point third quarter that allowed ACA to tie the school record for most points in a game.
Snipes completed 14 of 22 passes for 253 yards and two touchdowns, while Walters completed 2 of 2 passes for 24 yards and two touchdowns. Walters also had two receptions for 64 yards. Ortiz-Ramirez had six carries for 77 yards and a pair of touchdowns, along with seven catches for 93 yards.
ACA travels to Slocomb next week before returning home to play Montgomery Academy in its final two region games. Wicksburg returns home to face Trinity next week, then travels to winless Northside Methodist for its final region game