Pike Road escapes upset at the hands of B.T. Washington in season finale
Jordan King makes a touchdown grab for Pike Road in the win over BTW Friday. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
PIKE ROAD -- Granger Shook needed just one word to sum up what he witnessed on Friday night.
“Ugly,” the Pike Road coach said, before elaborating. “By everybody. By me, by everybody. It was just an ugly game. But we found a way to win at the end and proud of our boys for doing that.”
With its starting quarterback on the sideline, Booker T. Washington was almost one-dimensional in its attack, but found enough offense to throw a major scare into Pike Road before a late turnover allowed the Patriots to celebrate Senior Night with a 29-16 win over the Golden Eagles.
The Golden Eagles, the third-ranked team in Class 4A’s Region 2, led for much of the night against Class 6A’s Region 2 champions despite the fact that tight-end-turned-quarterback Joseph Phillips and his backup, Brandon Smith, presented the Pike Road defense little threat of a passing attack. Phillips completed 2 of 6 passes for 11 yards with an interception and Smith was 5 of 9 for 57 yards and a touchdown.
“We just can’t throw the ball,” BTW coach Lawrence O’Neal said. “The only thing we can throw is the ‘go’ ball. With EJ (Hall), we can open up the whole playbook. It makes us so dangerous because he’s so electric back there.”
But Hall was on the sideline, the result of a broken arm two weeks ago. That put the offense in the hands of Phillips, a 6-foot-3, 220-pound Auburn commitment known more for his defense.
“He’s a leader,” O’Neal said. “He stepped right in and took command of the offense, everything I want to do. He just wants to win.”
Phillips was the game’s leading rusher with 78 yards and a touchdown on 24 carries and there were certainly times when he put on an amazing performance in his ability to get yardage despite the concentrated effort by a good Pike Road defense to hold him in check. Still, without the passing threat, the only reason Booker T. Washington had a chance to win in the fourth quarter is because the Patriots’ offense could never get untracked.
“We had a feeling (Phillips) would be their quarterback,” Shook said. “We didn’t know how much they’d use him, being a non-region game. But our boys were not very motivated to play. That’s my fault. They (BTW players) were very motivated to play. This was their state championship, I think, and my hat’s off to L.A. O’Neal. He did an excellent job of getting his boys ready to play and our boys will be better prepared next week, I promise you that.”
Pike Road senior linebacker LaCedric Foster said the Patriots saw film of Phillips at quarterback in BTW’s win over Dale County last week and expected him to play the position on Friday.
“We knew we weren’t going to get him down with a one-man tackle,” Foster said. “We had to rally (to the ball). I feel like we weren’t doing that early, we were trying to prove something, but we just needed to play as a team. He’s a big boy.”
The Golden Eagles drove 62 yards in 12 plays late in the first quarter, the last 11 yards coming on a Phillips’ run in which he broke two tackles to reach the end zone. He powered in for the two-point conversion as well, giving BTW an 8-0 lead that held up for much of the first half against a sputtering, self-destructing Pike Road offense that managed just 44 total yards and one first down.
“We were down two starters on the offensive line, down a starter on defense, so there were some guys that are really good players that didn’t play for us tonight,” Shook said. “Not using that as an excuse, it just is what it is. But I’m proud of the guys who stepped up and played well.”
That lone first down put the Patriots in position for a 26-yard field goal by Shane Ikerman late in the first half that left Pike Road trailing 8-3 at the half.
“Coach Shook said, ‘we just got hit in the mouth, how are we going to respond,’” Foster said. “He put a lot on the seniors. He said we’ve got to hold each other accountable, hold these younger guys accountable and let them know we’ve got the fighting dog in us and don’t go down without a fight.”
It was Foster who provided the big play late in the third quarter after Jordan King’s 83-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to open the second half was wiped out by a pair of penalties. King would get the Patriots’ offense jump-started with three receptions in five plays, the last one covering the final 10 yards to put Pike Road on top 9-8.
Three plays later, it was Foster who dropped into coverage and intercepted Phillips’ pass over the middle at the Booker T. Washington 10-yard line, returning it to the 2 to set up Adrian Thornton’s touchdown run on the next play.
“I saw the RPO action, I saw the quarterback, his shoulders go up,” Foster said. “I was turned at a 45-degree angle, I dropped a little bit and it came right to me. I wanted to return it (to the end zone) bad.”
Back came the Golden Eagles, driving 69 yards to the end zone after a Pike Road turnover deep in BTW territory kept the Patriots from putting the game out of reach. On BTW’s final play of the drive, Smith lofted a pass for Javis Floyd, who became entangled with King on the route. King fell down, Floyd recovered his footing at the 4-yard line as he pulled in the pass and scored. Phillips added the two-point conversion to tie the game.
The Patriots’ only explosive play of the game came three plays later as King ran past the BTW secondary and Cason Myers delivered a strike to complete a 67-yard touchdown pass. The two-point conversion failed, leaving Pike Road clinging to a 22-16 lead with 6:23 remaining.
Another Pike Road turnover gave the Golden Eagles one last shot but facing fourth and seven from the Pike Road 21, Braylon Outlaw hit Smith, jarring the ball loose. Outlaw picked up the ball and ran 65 yards to the end zone with 96 seconds left to give Pike Road the victory.
O’Neal, a win away from the most successful regular season in the 33-year history of the school, wasn’t satisfied with the inspiring performance from his one-dimensional offense.
“I expected to win,” he said. “That’s what we’ve been preaching to our kids and they’re starting to believe it. Any time we take the field, we expect to win. Even with the odds against us. That’s life. Everything’s not going to go right in life -- you’re going to have some bad days and some good days -- but you’ve got to get out there and fight.”
Pike Road (8-2) won its eighth consecutive game and will play host to Homewood in the first round of the 6A state playoffs next week, but Friday’s win was more about survival than momentum.
“That’s probably one of the worst games we’ve played all year,” Foster said. “I feel like the defense picked up well. When the offense didn’t have it going, we kept their chin up by getting stops and keeping the energy high.”
Booker T. Washington (6-4) will be making consecutive playoff appearances for the first time in school history after winning its first-ever playoff game a year ago. The Golden Eagles will travel to Tuscaloosa to play American Christian in the first round of the 4A state playoffs and O’Neal said he expects Hall to return to the lineup next week.
“We found out some things about our team,” he said. “Some guys had to step up and play. AJ Glover stepped up at running back, played a lot of running back, played cornerback well. We know we can put Joe back there. With he and EJ both in the backfield, that’s totally different.”