BY DANIEL SCHMIDT
THE OBSERVER
OPELIKA — From the outside looking in, the 7A state championship game was one of the most notable David-versus-Goliath matchups in recent years. Opelika High School, the fifth-smallest in its division, faced Thompson High School, the fourth-largest and winners of five of the last six 7A state championships.
Even with that in mind, the Bulldogs carried a defiant swagger into Birmingham’s Protective Stadium on Dec. 3, after making an improbable playoff run that included wins over three top-seven teams. But in the end, their proverbial stone never struck its mark, and the Warriors (11-3) carried the night with a dominant 48-10 win over OHS (10-4).
This was the sixth 7A state championship that THS has won in the past seven years.
University of Alabama commit Trent Seaborn, who was named the game’s most valuable player, completed 16-of-27 passes for 259 yards and three touchdowns for the Warriors. Pryce Lewis also caught five passes for 112 yards and two TDs, and RJ Evans rushed 14 times for 83 yards and a TD.
According to Alabama High School Football Historical Society records, senior wide receiver Aundray Vann set a new record with 251 kickoff return yards — the most in any AHSAA state championship game — on nine returns for the Bulldogs. Blake Johnson also scored a rushing TD, and Jamel Griffin recorded a game-high 10 total tackles.
After the game, OHS head coach Bryan Moore recounted a year full of ups and downs, including two consecutive road losses against Enterprise High School and Central High School that sparked a season-saving winning streak. For Moore, his team’s newfound resolve to handle adversity away from Bulldog Stadium after those games proved to be their biggest area of growth.
“I’m proud of the kids, I’m proud of the year that we’ve had,” Moore said. “It was an adversity-filled year. We were 7-3 coming out of the regular season and had to win the last one against Carver to get into the playoffs. And so for us to find a way to be the No. 3 seed and then go on the road to beat Hewitt-Trussville and win a big Auburn game in the semifinals, that was big for our program. We’re still hunting a blue map, though. But congratulations to coach Freeman. He’s a great friend, has an incredible team and did a great job tonight. We didn’t play great, and they did, and it showed.”
Although the record-breaking Vann didn’t get the result he was looking for in his final game in an Opelika jersey, the work he and his teammates put in toward their pursuit of a state championship was validated.
“We worked all season to get here hunting for the blue map, and we knew we wanted to accomplish that,” Vann said. “I feel like we put in the work. We’ve been working since January through the cold, and I feel like that built momentum, and that got us to where we are today.”
On the opposite side of Moore, Griffin echoed a similar sentiment to Vann. The junior defensive back figures to be a crucial building block for next year’s team as the Bulldogs look to earn another shot at winning a title.
“It’s definitely a blessing to be able to play on a stage like this, like Coach [Moore] said, hunting a blue map,” Griffin said. “We worked for it and earned it. And that’s what we did this season: we put in work and fought through adversity, and that’s what got us here.”
The Warriors began the game with the ball at their own 20 yard line and quickly marched down the field with a series of chunk plays on the ground and through the air. However, an illegal formation penalty on what was initially a one-yard TD run by THS’ Urijah Casey ultimately sank a nine-play, 69-yard drive that ended with a 27-yard field goal by Ethan Black.
That stroke of good fortune did not last long for the Bulldogs as their offense exited the field after three plays on their first drive.
After punting the ball back to the Warriors, OHS again found itself defending its end zone minutes later as THS marched 57 yards in seven plays. However, the Bulldogs’ defense stood tall for a second-straight possession and forced THS into a 36-yard Black field goal.
Following another three-and-out by the OHS offense, the Warriors continued ripping off big plays with another nine-play, 69-yard drive that ended with a seven-yard TD pass from Seaborn to Trey Knight to put THS up 13-0 six seconds into the second quarter.
Another Bulldogs’ three-and-out put OHS in serious jeopardy early in the second quarter, and the Warriors made them pay with a methodical 10-play, 60-yard drive. Following a three-yard TD run by KJ Jackson, THS took a 20-0 lead with 6:37 left in the second quarter.
Things then went from bad to worse for the Bulldogs after the Warriors intercepted the ball at the OHS 37 yard line. Despite a valiant effort from the OHS defense to force THS into a fourth and long, the Warriors twisted the knife with 4:48 left before halftime with a high-arching 33-yard TD pass from Seaborn to Pryce Lewis.
Down 27-0, the Bulldogs showed some life offensively, gaining their first first down of the game in an effort to put points on the board before intermission. A holding call on third and long eventually killed that initial momentum, and OHS was forced to punt late in the second quarter.
On the very next play after that punt, THS ended any possible hope of a comeback with a 39-yard TD pass from Seaborn to Lewis for his second-straight explosive TD catch.
Although they were now down 34-0 with 1:46 left before halftime, the Bulldogs refused to give up as Vann sparked life into the bench with a 55-yard kickoff return. A personal foul call on the Warriors then gave OHS the ball at the THS 26 yard line.
The Bulldogs then capitalized on, by far, their best field position of the evening with a 29-yard Reese Beasley field goal that cut THS’ lead to 34-3 with 28 seconds left in the first half.
As the two teams retreated to their respective locker rooms, the Warriors held an edge in total yardage with 359 yards of offense to OHS’ 26 yards of offense.
Coming out of halftime, the Bulldogs tried to get their offense going with a quick screen on their first play of the third quarter. That strategy backfired as THS’ Trenton McCorvey intercepted the pass attempt and returned it 22 yards for a pick six to extend the Warriors’ lead to 41-3 — 15 seconds into the second half.
Following a brief OHS drive, THS stretched their lead with a methodical 16-play, 85-yard drive that consumed eight minutes and 27 seconds of game clock and ended with a three-yard TD run by RJ Evans. That put the Warriors up 48-3 with 0:47 left in the third quarter.
On the ensuing kickoff, Vann again injected a bit of life into the Bulldogs’ bench after returning the ball 56 yards to the THS 32 yard line. THS then ended the scoring opportunity with its third interception of the game three plays later.
Down by an insurmountable lead, Johnson finally gave OHS something to hang its hat on — with a one-yard TD run with 5:04 left in the fourth quarter that capped off a 10-play, 70-yard drive. That ended the scoring as the Warriors possessed the ball until the final whistle blew.
PHOTOS BY SCOTT DULANEY | THE OBSERVER
