CLASS A CHAMPIONSHIP: Lowndes finishes off Jackson Academy for title

The Lowndes Academy Rebels raise the trophy after winning the AISA Class A championship Friday at Cramton Bowl. (Tim Gayle)

By TIM GAYLE

After back-to-back losses to Chambers Academy and Sparta Academy in mid-September, Lowndes Academy had just two wins in its first five games. But that 30-14 loss to Sparta told Lowndes coach Shane Moye something about his team that maybe others didn’t see.

“That game gave us a lot of confidence because we felt like we were in the game until about eight minutes to go,” Moye said. “Our boys believe they can beat anybody they play, every single week. The amount of heart on this team? I mean, I’ve played sports my entire life and I’ve never been a part of anything like this my entire life. They’re just one huge unit and it doesn’t matter who gets the glory as long as, at the end of the day, we win.”

Moye still wasn’t sure what happened as the Rebels rolled through the playoffs with dominating wins over Pickens and Sparta before capping the unlikely climb to the top with another dominating performance in a 21-6 win over Jackson Academy in the AISA Class A finals at Cramton Bowl on Friday afternoon. 

“It kind of felt like it wasn’t real,” Moye said. “Our whole outlook at the end of the season was are our sophomores ready to play? And they were. Just the amount of leadership our seniors had, it was very fun to be a part of.”

There were times, it seemed in Friday’s game, when Lowndes Academy had a few extra players on the field.

Jackson Academy had lost 19 yards on 19 plays in the first half and had their only first down wiped out by a penalty. The Rebels’ 13-0 lead seemed insurmountable at the time. 

“We watch a lot of film,” Moye said, “and we felt like we could call out their plays (before they happened). The boys were prepared. When it comes down to it, that’s what it comes down to, the boys being prepared.”

That preparation helped the Rebels win their first state championship since 1997 as a swarming Lowndes defense held the Eagles to five first downs and 51 total yards.

“It means the world to the town, to Lowndes County, to us, to the coaches,” Lowndes senior Parker Lee Harris said. “This is the first one in 25 years, so it means the world to us and we couldn’t be happier.”

Lowndes (11-3), which looked pretty ordinary midway through the season, won its ninth consecutive game on Friday by handing Jackson (10-2) its first loss to a Class A school this season.

“This is huge,” said Moye, now in his 10th year at the school and fourth year as the head coach. “The support that we’ve had this year, even when we were 2-3, before we even started winning, you could feel the atmosphere was just different. The number one thing about being a coach is making them believe they can beat anybody and that’s basically what they do, they believe that.” 

Lowndes got rolling after a short Jackson Academy punt, marching 41 yards in nine plays for the game’s first points. 

Tyler Tyus threw to Clayton Hussey for the final 13 yards and Watters Box added the extra point for a 7-0 lead. Midway through the second quarter, Tyus added a touchdown on an 8-yard keeper for a 13-0 halftime lead.

That was more than enough for the Lowndes’ defense. The Eagles used a 42-yard run by Joseph Barnes to set up quarterback Cameran Thomas’ 3-yard score two plays later, but Jackson would manage just two first downs the remainder of the game, one on a Lowndes’ penalty and the other on the final play of the game. 

“Our defense is good,” Lowndes senior Jackson Self said. “We’ve got two 10th-grade linebackers (Kasen Dismukes and Cooper Dansby), they’re the real deal. Cooper Dansby is going to be a good football player.”

Tyus completed 10 of 18 passes for 105 yards and rushed for 10 yards and a pair of touchdowns on 13 carries. Self added 70 yards on 15 carries to lead all rushers on a day dominated by defense.

Harris said the Rebels never doubted they could finish on top of the Class A world after losing three of their first five games “by working as a team, coming together, trusting the coach’s game plan and going out there and giving 110 percent every snap. That’s what helped us. We were the smallest of every single team we played this year. Every single game we played, we were the underdogs on the field and we came out and outhearted them and that’s what made us champions.”

It was Lowndes’ third state championship and second at Cramton Bowl after winning the 1968 title as a member of the Alabama High School Athletic Association. The Rebels lost on five other trips to the finals, but there was something about this year’s run that was special, Self said. 

“We knew that as soon as we got to the playoffs and beat Pickens,” he said. “We shut them out. I think we knew then we were unstoppable.”

With only three seniors -- Tyus, Harris and Self -- playing large roles on a squad dominated by sophomores, Lowndes is already thinking about a return in 2022.

“We lose some key players,” Moye said. “But we feel like we’ll be good for the next few years.”