CLASS 4A, REGION 3: Tallassee takes early lead and holds on for key win over St. James

Chase Chumley and the Tallassee Tigers defeated St. James on Friday to move closer to a region title. (Kyle Thornton)

By TIM GAYLE

TALLASSEE -- Friday’s 4A Region 3 battle between St. James and Tallassee opened with a controversial play and just went downhill from there for the battered Trojans, who fell 31-21 to the Tigers at J.E. “Hot” O’Brien Stadium in a game that likely settled the region championship.

 The loss snapped a 28-game winning streak in region games by the Trojans dating back to an overtime loss at home against Alabama Christian Academy in 2020 .

With three starters sidelined by injuries, St. James coach Aubrey Blackwell tweaked his offense in an effort to find more production. The last thing he needed was a fumble return for a touchdown on the first play from scrimmage.

Miles Zukowski appeared to be down after a 2-yard gain, but a strip of the ball and quick thinking by Jaiden Gordan to scoop up the ball and return it 32 yards for a touchdown gave the Tigers a 7-0 lead before the Tallassee offense ever took the field.

“We practice it every day,” Tallassee coach L.A. O’Neal said. “The first man secures the tackle, the second man rips out the ball. The guy that picked up the ball was a corner on this (opposite) side of the field. He was around the ball, the ball popped out.”

Blackwell and his coaching staff protested the call to no avail, claiming that not only was Zukowski down before losing the ball, but a whistle blew the play dead.

“I’m interested to watch the film,” Blackwell said. “I know there was a whistle. It was an inadvertent whistle. I talked to the white hat (head official) afterward. He claimed that no one on the radio (communication) said it (happened), but there were multiple guys on the sideline that heard it. That’s why our guys stopped (pursuing Gordan). I’m not sure if (Zukowski) wasn’t down, anyway.

“You don’t want to start the game with that, especially if there was a whistle blown and an inadvertent whistle wasn’t called, which is even tougher. So many people on that play had stopped, including them. There were several tough things tonight that didn’t play in our favor.”

Later in the second quarter, a 40-yard field goal by Yuren Rodriguez drew more protests from the Trojan coaching staff, who claimed the play clock had expired before the ball was snapped.

Controversy aside, the game featured its share of mistakes by both teams, but it followed the script of a St. James squad trying to adjust with the loss to injury of two linemen and its top offensive player, Tabor Offord, and a Tallassee squad that went from winning one game last year to winning the region championship under its first-year coach.  

“We’ve got to handle business next week,” O’Neal said. “When we first got here, the kids bought into what we were talking about. It was nothing but show up every day and put the work in. If you do that with enough consistency, you build those habits that make you a winner. You start walking a little different, talking a little different, playing a little different. We’re finding ways to win games. At the beginning of the year, we were finding ways to lose games.”

Tallassee (5-2) can claim the region title with a win at home next week against Talladega. St. James (5-4) can finish second in region play with a win at Munford next Friday.

“Next week is a really important game,” Blackwell said. “If we win next week, we finish second in the region and host in the first round of the playoffs and that’s what we want to do.”

The Trojans tied the game at 7-7 with an impressive 13-play drive but the Tigers countered with an impressive drive of their own, using a 40-yard run by Jordan King for a 14-7 lead. The Trojans caught the next break as the ball was snapped over the head of Tallassee quarterback Trent Morris and recovered in the end zone by Will Wright to tie the game.

Just as quickly, the momentum swung in the other direction as Tallassee’s J.D. McKenzie fielded the ball on the left side of the field, raced across toward the Tallassee bench and turned upfield in a 69-yard sprint to the end zone for a 21-14 lead.

“That was huge,” O’Neal said. “Our defensive coordinator (James Mitchell) and special teams coordinator, coach (Justin) Ellis, have been asking when we were going to return one to the house. We almost got two. He made a heck of a run on it.”

The return gave the Tigers a 21-14 lead from which the Trojans never recovered.

“When you have multiple injuries to older kids, we’ve got a couple of ninth graders and an eighth grader on kickoff (coverage),” Blackwell said. “We’re trying our best to get some guys a breather and when you’re counting on young guys, young guys make mistakes. 

The Tigers’ average field position on five first-half possessions was the Tallassee 48-yard line, leading to 17 unanswered points and a 31-14 halftime lead.

And while Friday’s win might have been the biggest for the program since a 2014 win over Central-Clay County propelled the Tigers to a region title, O’Neal expected his team to be ready for next week’s game with Talladega.

“We find creative ways to keep their feet to the fire,” O’Neal said. “If practice starts lagging, we’ll start practice over and we’ll start hitting a lot.”