THURSDAY PREPS: ACA storms back to beat Montgomery Academy; Jeff Davis ends season on high note
Corey Landers finds a hole during Alabama Christian’s win over Montgomery Academy on Thursday. (Tim Gayle)
COMBINED REPORTS
The game was barely three minutes old and Montgomery Academy had already converted a pair of two-play drives into quick scores and a 14-0 lead over Alabama Christian Academy on Thursday at McLemore Field. And the rout was on.
Or was it?
“We knew this was going to be a physical game,” ACA coach Michael Summers said. “What I’m proud of is there’s kind of been this narrative, and I’ve never bought into it, but some of these city schools, they’ve beaten us more than we’ve beaten them and when we get down 14-0 we don’t have that look of ‘here we go again.’”
Instead, it was a look of determination as Alabama Christian responded with scores on its next three possessions to forge into the lead and defeat Montgomery Academy 31-21 for only their second win over a Capital City Conference rival in a 10-game span over the last four years.
It was Alabama Christian Academy’s second win over Montgomery Academy in the last three meetings, a turnaround from a lopsided series that saw ACA win just once in the first 23 games of the series.
“Hats off to them, they were more physical than we were, they were faster than we were,” Montgomery Academy coach Robert Johnson said. “We got up and I guess that’s a good lesson to learn. We weren’t trying to put the brakes on. The biggest thing is we couldn’t get off the field. We would put them in bad situations and they converted, like, three third downs. And that was tough.”
On the first play from scrimmage, MA fullback Jashawn Cooper ran 63 yards to the ACA 7, where Ruston Bassett scored on the next play for a quick 7-0 lead.
Four plays and a punt later, Montgomery Academy was on the move again. Jamal Cooper, making the late-season transition to quarterback, hit Judson Lindsey over the middle for a 52-yard gain to the ACA 14-yard line. Jamal Cooper’s quarterback keeper on the next play found the end zone and it was 14-0 with 8:41 remaining in the first quarter.
“It looked bad there early,” Summer admitted. “We talked before the game about, number one, how proud I am to coach these kids. They’re a resilient group. They’ve been through a lot off the field. On the field, we had three games we had lost, but we’ve been in all of them.
“That’s what I told them at halftime. We had one or two guys that weren’t doing their job -- we just had a blown assignment and you see what happens. They trusted the game plan. We made a few adjustments defensively. I was really proud of Greg (Howard). I thought he did a fantastic job after those first two drives.”
After the first two possessions netted Montgomery Academy 136 yards and 14 points on four plays, the next eight possessions (leading up to the final one) managed just 119 yards, seven first downs and seven points as MA’s offense managed just 2.29 yards per play.
Still, Montgomery Academy got another touchdown, this one on a 3-yard keeper, by Jamal Cooper for a 21-17 lead at the half.
“We had seen on film where they put him in the last couple of weeks and we really felt like that’s what we were going to see,” Summers said. “No disrespect to the kid who’s been playing quarterback -- I think he’s done a fantastic job -- but that’s a Division I-A athlete at quarterback and when you have the ball in his hands every play, he can make things happen.”
But the sputtering grind-it-out MA offense was no match for the faster ACA defenders. A 43-yard pass from Hayes Hunt to Garrett Weathers set up a short touchdown pass to Preston Hicks on the next play and Hunt hit Avery Stuart with a 58-yard bomb on the next possession and ACA had wiped out the early deficit.
A fumbled kickoff led to a Tyson Summers’ field goal on the next possession to give ACA the lead before Jamal Cooper’s short touchdown run put MA in front at the half. ACA scored on the first possession of the second half on a 22-yard run by Corey Landers and never relinquished the lead.
“All week at practice, Coach is always talking about have a good response to everything,” Landers said, “so we already knew we had to come back harder and stronger.”
On the final play of the third quarter, Landers fielded a punt at his 21 and returned it 72 yards to set up Hunt’s 5-yard touchdown pass to Trey Schlemmer two plays later for a 10-point lead to put ACA in control.
“We just have to cut out our mistakes,” Johnson said, “and whoever we’re playing, match their physicality and their speed. There were a lot of plays tonight where we did not do that.”
Jashawn Cooper led MA with 124 yards on 16 carries, while Jamal Cooper completed 4 of 8 passes for 86 yards before leaving midway through the fourth quarter with cramps. Thomas Woodward resumed his role at quarterback and completed 5 of 15 passes for 44 yards before throwing a late interception to Stuart that sealed the ACA victory.
Defensively, Hudson Whitt had nine tackles for MA, followed by Nigel Walker with seven, Robert Huffaker and Lindsey with six each and Jashawn Cooper with five.
MA (7-3) remains home to play Flomaton in the first round of the 3A playoffs next Friday.
“The best news of all is this game is over, we’re back to 0-0 and we get an opportunity to play a heck of a team next week in Flomaton,” Johnson said. “They might be a No. 4 seed but everyone knows that in that region, a No. 4 seed can win state.”
Hunt completed 12 of 19 passes for 178 yards and three touchdowns while Landers rushed for 84 yards on 20 carries and had 25 yards on three receptions. Jack Thomas led the ACA defense with 11 tackles and a sack, followed by Schlemmer with nine and D’Andre Sneed with seven.
ACA (7-3) travels to Jacksonville next Friday for the first round of the 4A playoffs.
“It gives us a lot of confidence, beating a good team,” Landers said. “So we’ll be ready for the playoffs against whoever.”
Jeff Davis 35, Park Crossing 7
The Volunteers finished 2021 on a high note while keeping Park Crossing winless for the season Thursday at Cramton Bowl.
Quarterback Savion German passed for two touchdowns including a 71-yard bomb to Johnny McCall in the third quarter to lift JD to its second victory of the year.
Josh Richardson gave the Vols an early lead with a 17-yard run for a score with 2:52 left in the first quarter. It would be the only points in the first half as Park Crossing had three scoring opportunities but each drive ended with a missed field goal attempt.
The Vols would score 21 unanswered points in the third quarter with Christopher Moore scoring on a 1-yard run and Marceldric Brown adding a 10-yard scamper for a score to go along with German’s touchdown pass.
Park Crossing got its only points of the game in the fourth quarter on an 18-yard run by Lee Beebe, Jr. but German answered with his second TD pass of the game, a 15-yard strike to Rakia McCall to close out the scoring.
German finished with 119 yards passing on 7-of-8 attempts. He also added 59 yards rushing.
Beebe had 44 yards rushing on 10 carries. Quarterback Jayden Duncan passed for 138 yards on 8-of-22 attempts.
Both teams ended their seasons on Thursday. The Vols finished 2-8 while the Thunderbirds finished 0-10 and on a 13-game losing streak dating back to 2020.