CONTRIBUTED BY SCA
FOR THE OBSERVER
LEE COUNTY —
After suffering a devastating loss to the AISA eight-man powerhouse and defending state champion Springwood Wildcats two weeks ago, the Southern Christian Academy’s varsity squad was pretty banged up going into a much needed off week.
“We were in bad shape with basically five of our eight starting guys out with injuries,” said head coach Jason Scott. “Not just a sprained toe either, we had fractured vertebrae, shoulders out of socket, you name it. It was a real challenge looking at training up 14-year old guys to start on a varsity football squad. It’s the nature of the beast with smaller teams like ours though.”
Scott has been coaching eight-man varsity football for 16 years here in Lee County.
“You have years where you barely have enough guys to play, and then years where you have more athletes than you have uniforms for, but that’s actually a good problem to have,” Scott said. “We play Evangel Lightning and Ezekiel Academy in our conference, those programs normally suit up 40 to 60 guys in the top four grades. In eight-man, that’s a really big squad. But I truly feel blessed that eight-man football thrives here in Alabama with AISA sanctioning an eight-man league last season. We love it, I think that smaller schools should really consider joining the ACSC or AISA conference and playing eight-man ball.”
While trading scores back and forth, it looked like the Patriots would go into halftime with a small lead, then an interception and an easy run in for six pumped the Lion’s momentum at the buzzer.
“We had to encourage the guys to keep the faith, to remember how hard we had conditioned, and that the second half belongs to the Patriots,” Scott said.
And that’s the way it happened, coming out of half time with a big 26-yard return from senior Auron Tanguma, putting the Patriots in great field position; they were able to strike quickly and never let up after that.
Although OC Jeff Bailey’s offense outscored the Lions 26 to 14 in the second half, it was the Pats defense led by defensive coordinator Keyshawn Dowdell that took the stage with four game-changing interceptions, two by Jagger Scott, and one each by Gabe Decker and Robbie Phinney.
A dominating performance taming the Lions was Elijah Bailey, sophomore MLB ringing up 18 tackles. Jagger Scott was right on his heels with 17 take downs while playing safety and Sam backer. Junior noseguard Nate Spratlin also had his best game yet adding 11 tackles.
Offensively, Bailey at QB poured on the gasoline stacking up 458 total yards, passing 12 of 27 for 345 yards. His favorite target was halfback Jagger Scott who pulled in 252 yards and four touchdowns. Tanguma added three catches for 62 yards, and freshman Owen Vaughan had a 31 yard reception from Bailey who also ran for 95 yards as QB. Aiden Hahn rounded out the Patriots scoring going 4 for 4 PAT’s.
With almost everyone healthy except starting sophomore corner Jedd Scott and senior QB Josiah Frick, the Patriots put it to the home team Evangel Lions winning on the road 48-42. Southern Christian’s record now stands at 2-3, being 0-2 in ASCS conference standings, with its last two games being conference games on the road.
PATRIOTS V. EVANGEL
The Patriots traveled to Montevallo, last week to face ASCS conference juggernaut and reigning eight-man State Champion, the Evangel Christian Lightning. Evangel stood undefeated with a 9-0 record going into homecoming week.
The Patriots came out strong after a solid 22-yard return from its only remaining senior, Auron Tanguma. Bailey gave the call for Jagger Scott to get the ball rolling for the Pats. After receiving a dump pass from fellow sophomore Elijah Bailey, Jagger tore his way though the Lightning defense, shaking off tacklers to score on a 45-yard opening salvo. Jagger has scored on the opening play against the Lightning three years in a row. The eight-man scoring machine answered back immediately and scored twice more before the Patriots are able to rally a second scoring drive behind Elijah, who is now starting QB after a season ending injury to senior team captain Frick.
“We are very happy watching Elijah stepping into the QB slot and becoming the leader we all hoped he would be,” said Jason Scott. “Losing Jo [Frick] was really tough on us. He’s not only a great athlete but an incredible leader and field general for us. Elijah has filled that role well, now that he has accepted his leadership position and the authority that goes with it.”
Elijah would lead the Patriots passing 7 of 15 for 121 yards with his favorite target being halfback Jagger who would battle out 115 yards on six catches, mostly passes into the flats which seemed to be the only visible hole in the Lightning armor. Elijah and Jagger would account for the only points for the Pats in the 61-12 loss. Defensively Jagger would again lead the team with 15 tackles and a sack, Elijah had eight tackles, and sophomore Phinney added five tackles and a sack for the game.
“I knew it would be an uphill battle against Evangel, especially on their homecoming night. They dominate year after year and are currently on a 26 game winning streak,” Tim Scott said. “I am just glad to get out of here tonight without any additional injuries. Evangel is a very physical team, probably the toughest any eight-man team in Alabama could face this year.”
Southern Christian will now face off with the Ezekiel Knights in Wetumpka. This will be the last chance for SCA to punch their ticket to the ASCS conference tournament. If they win against the Knights, the Patriots will be in a three way tie for the fourth spot in the post season tournament with East Central and Ezekiel being the other teams with three conference losses each. The fourth spot would then boil down to points allowed against conference opponents.
The Patriots JV squad defeated the Springwood Wildcats 14-0 on Monday in its final game of the season behind the golden arm of seventh grade QB William Dooley. The junior Patriots ended with a 4-3 winning season. There is no post season for ASCS JV football.