WEEK 10: Pike Road holds off BTW in regular season finale
BTW’s EJ Hall is grabbed by Pike Road’s Jaylan Jarrett in Friday’s game. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
PIKE ROAD -- Everyone expected Pike Road tailback Anthony Rogers and Booker T. Washington quarterback EJ Hall to put on a scoring show, but where did Jaylan Jarrett come from?
The Patriots’ defensive tackle lined up at tight end midway through the fourth quarter and caught an 8-yard touchdown pass from Kaleb Foster to give Pike Road a little breathing room in a 49-34 victory that was a little too close for comfort for the defending 5A state champs.
“It was special he got to run that play,” Pike Road coach Ed Rigby said. “That’s our threat, a 285-pound tight end/running back. You don’t know where he’s going to line up. Kaleb pitched it to him perfect and he pulled it down. Touchdown baby.”
The play offset a third-quarter rally by the Golden Eagles that pulled them back into the contest and was the only second-half touchdown from the Pike Road offense, which has struggled over the last month to find any offensive consistency in the second half.
“We’ve got to get this second half, offensively, figured out,” Rigby said. “We put our defense in a bad way. Flat-out reality is we scored one touchdown in the second half; none last week, none the week before, one the week before that. We’ve got to get this figured out. We’ve got to find some intensity in the second half.”
Pike Road (6-4), now playing in 6A for the first time, will play host to Spanish Fort in the first round of the playoffs at home next week.
“Coach told us to come out these next couple of days in practice and perfect our second-half offense,” Jarrett said, “stop coming out so slow after halftime because it’s going to cost us in the playoffs.”
The Patriots got four touchdowns from sophomore sensation Anthony Rogers, including three in the first half as Pike Road built a comfortable 35-6 lead.
That was before Hall, the Eagles’ quarterback, found his rhythm. The junior, who scored on an 86-yard run on BTW’s first play from scrimmage, warmed up in the third quarter with a 19-yard touchdown pass to Joe Phillips; an 83-yard interception return to the 2-yard line (before he was tackled by Rogers) that set up his 2-yard scoring run on the next play; a two-point conversion run after the touchdown; and another touchdown pass to Phillips that covered six yards and brought the Eagles within 42-26.
“He’s as good as any single player we’ve played all year,” Rigby said. “He’s got more speed than a lot of those guys. He’s a one-man wrecking machine. Whoever’s playing them this week in the playoffs is going to get surprised because he’s way faster than you can imagine. That kid is very, very special. Somebody is about to get shocked a week from tonight because he’s electric.”
After an 0-3 start, Booker T. Washington (5-5) will travel to Orange Beach for the first round of the 4A state playoffs next week.
Two plays kept the Patriots in front in the second half. The first was a 75-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by Rogers after Hall’s two-point run made it 35-20. The second was the pass to Jarrett that extended the Patriots’ margin to 23 points with six minutes left.
“We’ve been running that play since the summer,” Jarrett said. “They finally called it. I was just wide open. They weren’t expecting it. Folks don’t expect me to go out for the pass, to run a route, so I was wide open.”
Jarrett’s reception was important because BTW answered with a 60-yard touchdown run by Hall and an onside kick that was recovered by the Eagles. While there wasn’t enough time remaining, Hall’s talented rally finally reached its end when he was hit and fumbled, resulting in a recovery by Jarrett.
“We just want to play ball,” said first-year BTW coach Lawrence O’Neal, who team overcame a series of off-the-field obstacles during the week leading up to the Pike Road game and will now prepare for only the second playoff game in school history. “Our goal is to get our kids to the next level, so any time we can play a team that’s got (players like) Vysen (Lang), who has eyes on him, Jaylan, who has eyes on him, Anthony, where our kids can get some exposure, it’s always a plus for us.”
O’Neal took the job at BTW after serving as Pike Road’s defensive coordinator. Friday’s game was his first trip back to Pike Road.
“I’ve got a bunch of guys on there that I coached when I was defensive coordinator, so I wish them the best,” O’Neal said. “Jaylan, Malik (Blocton), Shemar (Powell), Cody (Markham), Tremarcus (Webb), DJ (Tolliver), Mason (Hussey), I’m happy they’re experiencing success.”
“It was a fun experience, playing against my old defensive coordinator,” Jarrett said.
Rogers had just five carries in the final 16 minutes of the game but still finished with 167 yards and three touchdowns on 21 carries, adding another score on the kickoff return.
Hall, meanwhile, rushed for 178 yards and three touchdowns on 19 carries while completing 15 of 26 passes for 161 yards and two touchdowns. He also had three tackles and an interception to set up a touchdown.
For BTW, Yven Williams had nine tackles and KanDarius Green had eight.