OPINION —
Last Friday night, the Opelika Bulldogs beat Smiths Station 51-19 on senior night at Bulldog Stadium.
The Bulldogs rushed for 202 yards, 9 -yards a carry, and threw for 125 yards. Jordan Jackson led the rushing attack with 95 -yards on 5 carries, Jaylen Nelson and CJ Sankey followed with 25 rushing yards apiece. QB Austan Christiaan was 8 of 10 for 125 passing yards passing. Receivers JP Patterson (14-yards), Matt Pritchett (15-yards) and Braiden Howard added (51-yards) combined to account for most of the receiving yards.
Smiths Station was purposely slow and methodical when on offense. Gaining most of the yards right in the middle of the OHS defense. In the first half, Opelika had trouble stopping the Panthers running game. The Panthers relied on the fullback trap right behind center for 4 and 5 yards per rush while the clock ticked away. Opelika’s Justin JP Patterson and Braden Howard was able to answer two SSHS TD’s by returning kickoffs for touchdowns.
Opelika made some adjustments at halftime to slow down the Panther rushing attack. The second half was a different story; the Bulldogs slowed down the rushing attack and secure a nice Region win in the last home game of the regular season.
The Dogs travel to Montgomery’s Crampton Bowl, to play the Carver Wolverines (4-4, R 3-2) coached by Mario White, in a huge Region game. Carver scored 216 points while allowing 183 through eight games, and they average 27 points on offense while yielding 23 points on defense. By comparison, Opelika scored 218 points and allowed 142 points for an average score of “31-21”.
Opelika leads the overall series 18-4, including a 24-14 Opelika win last year. This season, Carver beat Percy Julian (44-0), Dothan (24-14), Smiths Station (55-14) and beat JAG (42-14). The Wolverines lost to Daphne (21-7), Auburn (23-16), Parker (21-14) and Central (56-7).
Carver is a good football team that can beat a good Opelika team by playing a near perfect game.
This is Opelika first road trip past Auburn and the first game we have played outside of Lee County.
This should be a very good football game. Fans can buy tickets a gofan.co, or listen live on your home for Opelika Athletics, WKKR 97.7 Kicker FM, the free iHeartRadio App and online at www.kickerfm.com. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m., pregame airs at 6:30 p.m. presented by the Orthopaedic Clinic.
Opelika Cross Country team participated in the Husky Invitation in Birmingham last weekend. The results are below: Congrats Caroline Couey for dominating another Cross Country event, finishing first with a time of 18:41.23.
