CLASS 6A 2ND ROUND: Homewood, costly penalties eliminate Pike Road

Pike Road coach Ed Rigby saw his Patriots fall to Homewood on Friday in the second round of the Class 6A playoffs. (File Photo)

By BILL LUMPKIN, III

HOMEWOOD – Pike Road’s inability to get off the field on third and fourth down and a costly holding penalty eliminated last year’s Class 5A state champions from a chance to repeat in a higher classification on Friday night.

Down 21-14 late in the third quarter, Kaleb Foster’s 52-yard game-tying touchdown pass to Jordan King was wiped out on a holding penalty and Homewood (10-2) held on for a 24-21 win over the Patriots (7-5) in the second round of the Class 6A state playoffs at Waldrop Stadium.

“It was huge,” said Pike Road coach Ed Rigby. “We were kind of snakebit all night with the penalties at the worst time and they played a really good game. They are a great team and I wish them the best of luck.

“Our kids played their hearts out. This one hurts. These guys have won a bunch of football games these last four years. These seniors deserve a shout out for what they’ve done this year.”

After the holding penalty, Pike Road was backed up to its own 28 and forced to punt.

Homewood, which didn’t have a first down in the second half at that point, took over on the 49 and Woods Ray had completions of 22 and 17 yards to Charlie Reeves to set up Whit Armistead’s 26-yard field goal for a 24-14 lead with 9:21 remaining.

Pike Road answered with a 72-yard, 11-play drive that took almost five minutes off the clock. Tre Marcus Webb’s 17-yard touchdown run with 4:41 left closed the gap to 24-21.

Pike Road forced a punt with 1:36 remaining, but Woods nailed a 42-yarder that rolled dead at the 2.

“We thought it was a touchback and that would have given us a little more room to work,” Rigby said. “We were really limited in what we could call down there just to get out of it. We wanted to try and throw some comeback routes and get out of bounds, but it just didn’t work.

“It was hurry up, hurry up and try to save our timeouts.”

Sophomore sensation Anthony Rogers was stopped for a two-yard gain on fourth-and-fourth at the 10 to end any Pike Road hopes of a comeback.

Rogers ended the game with 27 carries for 140 yards and a touchdown and two catches for 52 yards and another touchdown.

He accounted for 192 of Pike Road’s 300 total yards.

“We were one dimensional, but it really worked for us,” Rigby said. “We probably should have done it more and we could have kept their offense off the field. We tried to match them blow for blow. Just hats off to our kids.”

Pike Road held Homewood to just three points, three first downs and 65 total yards in the second half.

Homewood finished with 275 total yards.

“Our defense was great in the second half,” Rigby said. “We just didn’t answer the bell enough times. But it wasn’t for a lack of effort by any means.”

Homewood converted a fourth-and-14 on its first scoring drive, a third-and-12 and a fourth-and-1 to take a 14-7 lead and a third-and-three with 36 seconds left in the half for the go-ahead score.

“We couldn’t get off the field for a culmination of reasons,” Rigby said. “It was just a lot of different things throughout the game, and you put them all together and you end up with that kind of outcome. I just hate it for these kids.”

Ray, who rushed for 85 yards on 18 carries, but zero yards on eight carries in the second half, scored on a three-yard run for the early 7-0 lead.

Rogers took a pass over the middle from Foster for 52 yards to tie the game at 7-7 with 3:37 left in the first quarter.

Foster completed 6-of-13 passes for 89 yards.

Ray threw a 29-yard touchdown strike to Jackson Parris with 8:55 left the half for a 14-7 advantage.

Ray, who started the game 3-of-11 for 47 yards, finished the night 13-of-28 for 171 yards.

Reeves had seven catches for 82 yards and Parris five catches for 83 yards.

Down 14-7, Rogers answered with a 17-yard scoring run to cap a 70-yard, 11-play drive with 3:09 left in the half.

But Ray worked his magic one more time, driving Homewood 63 yards in nine plays, throwing a pair of completions for a combined 20 yards and running five times for 36 yards before Montrell Odell scored on third-and-goal from the 3 with 36 seconds left in the half.

“That’s a heck of a football team over there,” said Homewood coach Ben Berguson. “We’ve been real explosive on offense, so you have to give them a heck of a lot of credit.

“The holding call turned out to be huge. They were spreading us out on the play. I didn’t see what happened, but it was huge mentally to get that call.”

Pike Road finished with 10 penalties for 65 yards while Homewood was whistled twice for 20 yards.

Homewood will travel to Saraland in next Friday’s quarterfinals.