BY DANIEL SCHMIDT
FOR THE OBSERVER
AUBURN – Coming off of an emotional win over its crosstown archrival, the Auburn High School football team knew it needed to get off to a quick start at home against Enterprise High School. The Tigers (3-1, 2-0) did just that against the Wildcats (2-2, 0-2), scoring on three of their first four drives en route to a crucial 23-7 region victory.
Junior quarterback Cason Myers recorded 203 total yards of offense and two touchdowns, senior wide receiver Joshua Askew caught seven passes for 82 yards and a TD and the AHS defense held EHS to just 174 total yards of offense in the victory.
Despite his team finally carving out an identity as a stout defensive-minded team with an efficient passing game, AHS head coach Keith Etheredge focused on drives that stalled inside the EHS 20 yard line. Three of the Tigers’ four drives that made it to the red zone ended in field goals.
“Defensively, we played really good,” Etheredge said. “And we moved the ball up and down the field, we just need to put some points up on the board. We were being a little conservative in the fourth quarter, with a three score lead in a big region game, which is expected. But we’ve got to finish inside the red zone. And that’s on me as a head coach.”
Etheredge then praised his team for its mentality to respond when adversity strikes, alluding to the eight-play, 77-yard drive right before halftime right after EHS running back Jyrell Reese recorded a 64-yard rushing TD.
“We’ve done that multiple times this year,” Etheredge said. “When somebody scores, we come and answer. Putting people away is the big thing. But we seem to answer every time the pressure is on. We’ve got good kids, and they work extremely hard. That’s a testament to their parents and these coaches on staff. Really proud of them, but we still have a long way to go.”
After the game, Myers echoed his head coach’s sentiments about the offense’s red zone performance before praising the stable of wide receivers he has built a rapport with through four games.
“[It was a] hard-fought game,” Myers said. “Came down to the end. The scoreboard might not exactly show how tight that game was toward the end. Lots of times we’d make a drive and then stall down in the red zone. A field goal is good, but you always want to get down in the red zone and score a touchdown. That’s something we’ve got to work on and fix.”
However, it was the Tigers’ defense that stole the show in the end. Aided by several bad snaps from the Wildcats, AHS surrendered just 43 rushing yards on 20 carries, recorded two sacks and forced two fumbles.
“Our [defensive line], they’re four dudes, I’m not going to lie,” said senior linebacker Aiden Parker. “And linebackers, we were spying the whole game, so their quarterback wasn’t going to get anything. When he tried to scramble at the end of the game in the fourth quarter, we had some linebackers there to stop him. They knew they couldn’t run on us. They had one run play, but that was a bust.”
That defensive effort shone through from the game’s first snap as the Wildcats’ first drive quickly stalled due to a withering Tigers pass rush and tight coverage in the secondary.
Feeding off the defense’s energy and crowd noise following a 17-yard punt that gave them the ball at the EHS 49 yard line, the Tigers looked to be in prime position for a quick TD drive. That excellent starting field position ultimately ended with a 32-yard Joseph Daniel field goal that put the Tigers up 3-0 with 7:09 left in the first quarter.
After a bad snap from the Wildcats helped the Tigers’ defense force a three-and-out on the very next drive, the AHS offense found itself with even better field position than its first drive after another terrible Wildcats punt.
With the ball at the EHS 21, the Tigers capitalized on EHS’ mistakes with three-straight runs, including a nine-yard Myers TD run through the heart of the defense that broke several tackles. That gave AHS a 10-0 advantage with 4:23 left in the first quarter.
Following another three-and-out that saw EHS starting quarterback Mason Burkhardt knocked out of the game courtesy of a bone-crunching Greg Williams hit, the Tigers began their third-straight drive on the Wildcats’ side of the field.
That was where AHS’ frustrations with red zone execution really began to boil over as the drive stalled near the EHS 26 yard line, and the Tigers walked away empty-handed.
AHS fans in attendance must have felt a strange sense of déjà vu after the Tigers forced a third-straight three-and-out and found themselves starting a fourth-straight drive in Wildcats territory.
This time, however, AHS made the most of its opportunity with an eight-play, 27-yard drive that began with a 16-yard catch from Jaeden King and ended with a 22-yard Daniel field goal. That put the Tigers up 13-0 with 5:43 left in the second quarter.
That shutout lead did not last much longer after that, though, after Reese broke out of a scrum of AHS defenders and ran up the EHS sideline for his 64-yard TD run that gave the Wildcats a glimmer of hope minutes before halftime.
Now clinging to a 13-7 lead with 3:35 left to play before the break, the Tigers faced what was by far their longest drive of the evening to that point. In response, AHS whipped up an eight-play, 77-yard drive that featured a 20-yard reception from Cash Reif, a 12-yard reception from Levi Kelly and a 28-yard TD reception from Askew.
With the Tigers now up 20-7 with 39 seconds left in the first half, EHS was content to kneel the ball once and retreat to its locker room to lick its wounds and draw up adjustments.
Coming out of halftime, AHS knew they needed to deliver a knockout blow to put the Wildcats away for the rest of the evening. While they didn’t get quite the result they were looking for, the Tigers did enough to take most of the remaining wind out of EHS’ sails with a 15-play, 63-yard drive that consumed nearly seven minutes.
That drive, which featured timely catches from Askew, Reif and King, ended with a 22-yard Daniel field goal that ended the scoring at 23-7 with 4:57 left in the third quarter. From there, the Tigers leaned on their defense and running game to drain the clock until Parker recovered a fumble at the EHS 49 yard line with 1:28 left to play.
What’s Next
The Tigers will remain at home and host Montgomery’s Johnson Abernathy Graetz High School in a 7A Region 2 game on Sept. 19. JAGHS is currently 0-3 overall and 0-2 in region play, and coming off a 59-20 loss to Opelika High School.
So far, the Jaguars have scored 8.7 points per game while allowing 49.7 points per game. In comparison, the Tigers have scored 19.5 points per game while allowing 16.3 points per game.
