THURSDAY PREPS: Charles Henderson holds off St. James; Pike Road volleyball tops MA
St. James’ receiver Ziggy Holloway grabs a pass over Jywon Boyd for a touchdown in Thursday’s game in Troy. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
TROY -- For a half, St. James battled a bigger, deeper Charles Henderson team to a standstill, taking a 14-14 tie into the Veterans Stadium locker room after a last-second touchdown to close out the first half.
In the second half, four of the five St. James’ possessions ended with turnovers. The fifth ended with a punt, which was returned 45 yards for a touchdown by Jywon Boyd to put the finishing touches on a 26-14 win by Charles Henderson on Thursday night.
“The way you win football games is you don’t turn the ball over and you don’t make mental mistakes,” St. James coach Jimmy Perry said. “We had way too many of those tonight. I was proud of our effort. I thought our kids played hard but we’ve got to clean up the mental errors if we’re going to progress and get better.”
Both sides of the ball rarely appeared in sync for St. James, which was often manhandled at the line of scrimmage by the best Charles Henderson team in nearly a decade. The Trojans’ path to victory might have been difficult in any case but it certainly wasn’t helped by the fact that more than a dozen St. James players were absent from practice on both Monday and Tuesday because of the flu.
“That’s an excuse,” Perry said. “We don’t have any.”
St. James opened the game with four consecutive KJ Jackson passes, then turned to Cosner Harrison to pick up 35 of the final 36 yards on the ground, including a fourth-and-three run for 3 yards to the 1-yard line to set up Jackson’s quarterback sneak on the next play for a 7-0 lead.
Charles Henderson responded with a six-play, 49-yard drive capped by a 16-run down the right sideline by Zach Coleman that tied the game late in the first quarter. The home team’s next possession was equally effective, with quarterback Parker Adams scrambling up the right hash for the final 14 yards and a 14-7 lead with nine minutes left.
St. James would put together its most impressive drive minutes later when Jackson completed 5 of 7 passes in a nine-play drive capped by a perfect 19-yard pass in the right corner of the end zone to Ziggy Holloway with three seconds left that knotted the score at 14-14.
Jackson finished the first half completing 9 of 13 passes for 123 yards, but the second half would be a different story as the Trojans struggled for any offensive rhythm. The junior completed just 5 of 14 passes while throwing three interceptions and fumbling once.
His fumble, a third-down scramble at the Charles Henderson 10-yard line, was scooped up at the 15-yard line by Jalen Suddith and returned 12 yards to start Charles Henderson on a nine-play drive for the game-winning touchdown.
“We had a chance right here when we get the turnover (an interception) and we’re going to put it in and take the lead,” Perry said. “We turned the ball over. You can’t turn the ball over. Turnovers kill you and it was obvious tonight.”
Coleman’s 7-yard run was all Charles Henderson would need. Nik Peerson hit the left upright on the extra-point attempt and missed after Boyd’s punt return, but St. James would manage just 27 rushing yards on 14 carries as the larger Charles Henderson line began to take control of the game.
“That’s what happens when a 3A plays a 5A,” Perry said. “We knew that going in. We wanted the challenge and it was a great challenge. We’ll get better from it. Hats off to them. They’ve got a good ballclub, lots of speed and a lot of size. But we’ve got to take care of us.”
Charles Henderson (4-1) is off to its best start since playing for the 4A state title in 2013 and its best start as a 5A program since 2007. St. James (4-2), playing the hardest non-region schedule in school history, dropped its second consecutive non-region game and will return to region play next week at Carlisle Field against Alabama Christian Academy.
“What it does is it helps tell you what you’ve got to improve on,” Perry said. “So we’ll take this and improve the areas we were deficient in and move on and get ready for next week.”
VOLLEYBALL
Pike Road 3, Montgomery Academy 2
PIKE ROAD -- The Patriots rallied in the fifth set for a 15-13 victory to hand Montgomery Academy its first back-to-back losses of the season with a 3-2 win in the Pike Road gym on Thursday.
Pike Road (17-10) won the first set 25-19, then dropped the second one 25-16 before rallying again in the third set 25-22. Montgomery Academy (20-3), which lost on Tuesday, took a hard-fought 28-26 win in the fourth set to force a fifth match in the best-of-five series.
For the Patriots, Rylie Fureigh had 10 digs, 19 assists and four aces, Allie Lovrich had 15 kills and nine digs, Taylor Robinson had 12 kills, five digs, five aces and four blocks, Lola Gorman had 23 digs and four assists, Desiree Williams had 11 digs and a pair of aces and Caroline Davis had 17 assists and two aces.
Prattville Christian 3, Beulah 0
PRATTVILLE -- The Panthers swept a best-of-five series from Beulah on Thursday, winning 25-5, 25-23 and 25-10 to improve to 4-0 in 3A Area 6 play.
For the Panthers, Baylee Rogers had 22 assists, two kills, three aces and a dig, Hannah Jones had eight kills, an ace and three digs, Sally Swindall had six kills and a block, Coco Thomas had four kills, an ace and a block, Emma Cate Carter had a pair of kills and three aces and Avery Rogers had six aces and six digs. Natalee Wheeler had a kill, an assist, an ace and three digs, Laura Beth NeSmith had a kill and Brylee Byrd and Savannah Lamar each had a dig.
PCA (18-13) will travel to participate in Danville’s Tournament of Champions this weekend.
Brew Tech 3, Greenville 0
The Rams swept Greenville 25-20, 25-11 and 25-9 to improve to 3-0 in area play on Wednesday and sweep the season series from the Tigers.
For the Rams, Jadyn McGhee had five kills, an ace and a pair of blocks, Kennedi Hill had five kills, three aces and a block, Jade Ray had four kills, Berkeley Wright had three kills and a pair of blocks, Camryn Foshee had nine assists and five aces, Elaisa Vazquez had six assists, Pryceless Wheeler had four aces and Jen Nguyen had four aces.
St. James 3, Russell County 0
The Trojans coasted past Russell County on Tuesday in a 6A Area 4 game in the St. James gym to improve to 2-1 in area play.
St. James defeated Russell County 25-5, 25-9 and 25-3 for their 11th win in the last 12 matches. For the Trojans, Tatiana Shuford had eight aces, a pair of kills, a dig and 20 assists, Kiya Jupiter had three aces, three kills, a dig and an assist, Sana Shuford had five kills and a dig, Kaylin Corley had three aces, nine kills, five digs and an assist, Ava Card had eight aces, four kills, three digs and an assist and Sydney Johnston added a dig.
Prattville Christian 2, Calera 0
Prattville Christian 2, Prattville 0
PRATTVILLE -- The Panthers swept 6A Calera and 7A Prattville in a tri-match on Tuesday, beating Calera 25-13 and 25-17 and Prattville 25-8 and 25-16 for their ninth win in the last 10 matches.
For the Panthers, Hannah Jones had 10 kills, five digs and five aces, Baylee Rogers had 29 assists, eight aces, a kill, seven digs and a block, Avery Rogers had four digs and two aces, Coco Thomas had seven kills, three blocks and a pair of aces and Emma Cate Carter had seven kills, two aces and a dig.
Natalee Wheeler had four digs, an assist and an ace, Sally Swindall had a block, two kills and a pair of digs, Laura Beth NeSmith had three blocks and a kill, Brylee Byrd had four digs and an ace, Savannah Lamar had an ace and Leah Cate Wilson had a kill.
Catholic 2, Brew Tech 0
Alabama Christian 2, Brew Tech 1
Brew Tech traveled to Alabama Christian Academy on Tuesday for a tri-match, losing to Catholic in straight sets (13-25, 13-25) and to Alabama Christian in three sets (18-25, 25-23, 11-15) in the Eagles’ gym.
For the Rams, Berkeley Wright had seven kills and a block, Camryn Foshee had 11 assists, Jen Nguyen had 12 digs and a pair of aces, Jadyn McGhee had four kills and Pryceless Wheeler had four kills.
Brew Tech beats Tallassee twice in Elmore County Block Party
ECLECTIC -- The Rams lost a pair of early matches to 6A foes Wetumpka and Benjamin Russell, then beat Tallassee twice before losing to Beauregard in the Elmore County Block Party at Elmore County High on Saturday.
Brew Tech lost to Wetumpka (9-25, 20-25) in straight sets and dropped a hard-fought battle to Benjamin Russell (23-25, 25-20, 15-17) before beating Tallassee twice in straight sets, once in pool play (25-11, 25-14) and once in bracket play (25-13, 25-11). The Rams then lost to Beauregard (22-25, 24-26).
Jadyn McGhee had 12 kills, eight blocks and a pair of aces, Berkeley Wright had 32 kills, three blocks and nine digs, Kennedi Hill had 19 kills, 11 blocks, eight aces and 21 digs, Pryceless Wheeler had 11 kills, 28 digs and two aces, Camryn Foshee had 54 assists and Elasia Vazquez had 32 assists and 28 digs.
CROSS COUNTRY
Lakeside’s Chloe Helms places second at Deerfield-Windsor School Invitational
ALBANY, Ga. -- Chloe Helms ran the girls’ 5K race in 20:05 to place second in a field of 144 runners at the Deerfield-Windsor School Invitational at Albany State University on Saturday.
Helms was the highest finisher for the Chiefs. Addy Helms finished 69th with a time of 26:27, Rebecca Neville was 85th with a time of 28:24, Eliza Ericksen was 91st with a time of 28:52 and Sky Clark was 119th after running the course in 33:03.
The Lakeside boys were led at the meet by Evan Sellers, who finished 69th with a time of 20:54, and and Tucker Stevenson, who was 104th with a time of 22:31 in a field of 177 runners.
The Lakeside junior varsity boys participated in the 3K meet and the entire team turned in personal-best times, half of the 10 personal-best times for the Chiefs on Saturday.
John Peak was 35th with a time of 13:29, Logan Clark was 80th after running the course in 14:47, Michael Hamilton was 88th with a time of 14:58, Sanders Raines was 100th among a field of 166 runners with a time of 15:34 and Lawson Raines finished 126th with a time of 16:43.
The Lakeside junior varsity girls had one participant. Addy Berry finished 77th in a field of 122 runners with a time of 18:01.