PIke Road outlasts Eufaula in a non-region victory
Pike Road tailback Ja'mihael Jones loses handle on screen pass in the Patriots’ win Friday against Eufaula. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
PIKE ROAD -- There wasn’t a full moon, but it must have seemed that way to Pike Road coach Granger Shook.
His Patriots did their best to make Friday’s homecoming matchup with 5A Eufaula suspenseful, having a touchdown negated by a penalty, failing to cover a kickoff, fumbling a kickoff return and rolling up 130 penalty yards.
Fortunately for Pike Road, the Tigers struggled on their ball security as well, throwing a pair of interceptions that were returned for touchdowns and failing to cover a kickoff of their own, helping the Patriots to a 48-30 win on Friday night.
“We’re at that point as a team, and into the season, to where we’ve shown glimpses of how good we can be,” Shook said. “We’re just very inconsistent as a team and very immature. I talk to the team all the time about maturity and not letting the scoreboard dictate our focus. I’m proud of how we played in the first half. I thought we played excellent, I thought we dominated the line of scrimmage.
“In the second half, for whatever reason, we couldn’t put anything together.”
The Patriots jumped in front on the second play of the game when Eufaula quarterback Browning Anderson turned and threw a swing pass to tailback Red Harris. What Anderson found instead was Pike Road cornerback Jordan King, who snared the ball out of the air at the 13-yard line and jogged into the end zone for a quick 7-0 lead.
“That’s all my D-linemen, with him having to throw it high to get it over their heads,” King said. “Everybody did their job. I just came up and made a play when I saw it.”
King was in the right place at the right time all night. It was the first of two interception returns for the junior, who also scooped up a fumble and took it to the end zone, ran 55 yards on an end-around for a touchdown and had another touchdown, this one on a reception, negated by a penalty.
“Jordan King did a really good job for us tonight,” Shook said. “I thought Jordan played exceptional at times. There were times where he’ll admit his eyes were bad. He got beat over the top. But he’s a very dynamic player. I’m excited for what the future has in store for Jordan King.”
Eufaula put together an impressive 13-play drive for a game-tying touchdown, but the Patriots countered with scoring runs of 2 and 78 yards by Ja’michael Jones for a 21-7 lead.
Back came the Tigers with a Thomas Wingate field goal, but the Patriots answered with a one-play drive as King scored on the end around.
“Everybody did what they had to do,” King said. “The linemen ran and blocked downfield and we sold the fake perfectly. We just had to execute.”
When the Tigers were slow to grab the bouncing kickoff near the sideline, Jordan Holmes grabbed the ball at the Eufaula 26 to give the Patriots another scoring opportunity.
Jones almost blew the opportunity when he fumbled the ball following a short reception, but King was there to scoop up the ball at the 14-yard line and sprint to the end zone for a 35-10 lead with 8:10 remaining in the first half.
“That was huge,” Shook said. “We stress all the time about the offense chasing the ball and Jordan King was chasing the ball and was at the right place at the right time. I’m proud of his effort.”
Jones had tried to fall on the ball in the mad scramble for the fumble when King suddenly appeared, picked up the ball and raced down the sideline.
“When I see the ball on the ground, I think ‘pick it up and score, pick it up and score,’ that’s all I think,” King said. “When I saw the ball and picked it up and didn’t see anybody in front of me, I had to try and get in the end zone.”
That was Jones’ third touchdown of the game. He could have had a fourth, intercepting an Anderson pass at the 25-yard line with a clear route to the end zone, but he turned at the 1-yard line and handed the ball to senior lineman Malik Blocton, who carried it across the goal for the touchdown.
Jones finished with 160 yards and a pair of touchdowns on 19 carries, but it was King’s performance that proved to be the difference as the Tigers had a 42-17 deficit at the half that was too large to overcome.
“When the score got high at halftime, we thought it was over,” King said. “We should have came out with the same mindset we had in the first half. We know what we’ve got to work on this week in practice.”
Anderson completed 16 of 37 passes for 239 yards. While he was intercepted three times (and had another wiped out by a penalty), he also threw touchdown passes of 28, 17 and 40 yards to Antron Mitchell, all on fourth-down passes. Mitchell had 150 yards and three touchdowns on 10 receptions.
Harris had 142 yards on 24 carries to lead the Tigers’ rushing attack.
And while the Patriots sputtered on offense and struggled to get off the field on defense in the second half, primarily because of 100 penalty yards, their 25-point halftime cushion was enough to help them to their third consecutive victory as they have a week off before resuming play on Oct. 6 against Park Crossing.
“We just have to be more disciplined, be more mature, we need more leadership on the team,” King said. “Keep going through the season and I think we’ll click better.”