BY DANIEL SCHMIDT
FOR THE OBSERVER
AUBURN — It was a strong week for Auburn High School athletics, as both the varsity football team and the girls flag football squad closed out their regular seasons with decisive rivalry wins.
Flag football
In a rivalry as fiercely contested as the one between Auburn High School and Opelika High School, conventional wisdom and records rarely matter on the football field.
That mantra was readily displayed between the Lady Tigers (11-2, 7-1) and the Lady Bulldogs (5-6, 4-3) as AHS weathered an early deficit to take down OHS 26-7 at Duck Samford Stadium on Oct. 23.
Junior wide receiver Marley Hunt recorded a rushing and receiving touchdown, and junior defensive back Pearl Simmons intercepted three passes for the Lady Tigers. Kailey Dowdell caught OHS’ lone TD, and Nakynlee Covington intercepted two passes for the Lady Bulldogs.
After the game, AHS head flag football coach Alison Link said her team’s competitive spirit was the deciding factor in a contest that was a one-possession game until early in the fourth quarter.
“The rivalry of it is what’s always so intense,” Link said. “It doesn’t matter if somebody’s 12-0 or 0-12, this game is always going to be an intense matchup for us. They’ve been down before and came back. They’ve played in really tight games where it went down to the last second and they either held on or had to score. This is a team that does not like to lose.”
According to Hunt, the gravity of playing at home in the final regular-season game helped the Lady Tigers overcome a sluggish start and eventually pull away.
“It was kind of an iffy start because we normally don’t start on offense, so we had to get in the groove and figure things out,” Hunt said. “It’s our rival, so we had to lock in. Once we did that in the third and fourth quarters, we really locked it in. And we knew this was our field, so we kind of dominated after that. I really just feed off of my team. Everyone’s just so supportive, and we just all lock in on defense and offense. So that’s what really drives me.”
For the ballhawking Simmons, the collective support from her defensive teammates made the difference and fueled her game-changing performance that limited OHS’ chances on offense.
“I think my performance just really went off of how everybody else was encouraging me and helping me and lifting me up, so that was good,” Simmons said. “And the defense as a whole just played together as one. We usually do that, and that’s one of the things we do best.”
Despite the comfortable final margin of victory, it was the Lady Bulldogs who came out swinging first with a 36-yard TD pass from Kyandra Reid to Dowdell two plays after forcing an AHS three-and-out.
Down 7-0, AHS quickly responded with a tough seven-yard TD run by Katherine Lee that saw her just barely get the ball over the goal line before her flag was pulled.
After tying the game 7-7, the Lady Tigers then quickly seized momentum after Faith Sanford picked off an overthrown pass. Following that interception, it took Hunt just one play to find the endzone with a six-yard TD run.
From there, things went from bad to worse for the Lady Bulldogs after Reese Wagnon recorded a second-straight interception for AHS toward the end of the first quarter.
For all the fireworks in the first quarter, the second quarter was much quieter outside of two interceptions for Simmons, a second interception for Sanford and an interception for OHS’ Nakynlee Covington.
Coming out of halftime down 14-7, it appeared the Lady Bulldogs found a second wind defensively as Lyric Mitchell and Covington both ended dangerous Lady Tigers drives with end zone interceptions.
However, AHS maintained pressure and finally broke OHS’ resistance with a three-yard TD catch by Lee less than a minute into the fourth quarter.
After a failed extra point attempt kept the score at 20-7, the Lady Tigers ended any hope of a comeback after Simmons recorded her third interception of the game on the very next drive.
Following an ill-fated OHS drive that was plagued by AHS’ pass rushers, Hunt ended the game with a 21-yard TD catch that gave AHS a 26-7 lead before an unsuccessful extra point attempt.
What’s Next
The Lady Bulldogs faced Johnson Abernathy Graetz High School in the final game of the regular season at Bulldog Stadium on Oct. 28 at 5 p.m. JAG is 2-6 overall and 1-5 in regional play. Scores were not available before press.
The Lady Tigers have completed their regular season and will await the announcement of their first-round playoff opponent.
Varsity football
In a game against a team desperately needing a win to have any chance of making the playoffs, Auburn High School knew it would need to weather the storm on the road at Dothan High School.
The Tigers (8-2, 5-1) did just that, rallying in the second half to win their final regular-season game 39-26 over the Wolves (5-4, 3-3) in a back-and-forth contest that was decided in the fourth quarter on Oct. 24.
Jaeden King recorded 194 total yards of offense and a touchdown on 16 touches, Jayden Huff scored two rushing TDs and Greg Williams intercepted a pass for AHS.
After DHS opened the scoring with a TD with 8:41 left in the first quarter, the Tigers quickly responded with a one-yard rushing TD from Huff and a 26-yard rushing TD from King.
With AHS up 14-7, the Wolves evened the score with a TD less than a minute into the second quarter, and then took the lead with another TD with 4:57 left in the second quarter. Following a failed extra point attempt, the Tigers then cut DHS’ lead to 20-17 with a Joseph Daniel field goal seconds before halftime.
Coming out of halftime, AHS found itself in a difficult situation as the Wolves scored a TD on their opening drive to take a 26-17 lead with 9:30 left in the third quarter after a second-straight extra point attempt was no good. However, the Tigers struck back after Carnell Jackson barreled into the end zone on a two-yard TD run with 1:31 left in the third quarter.
Still down by two points heading into the fourth quarter, backup quarterback JD Huff, who entered the game in the second quarter, connected with King on a 70-yard pass. That led to a five-yard TD run from Huff, which put AHS up 32-26 with 10:32 left in the game after Pate found Joshua Askew for the two-point conversion.
Later in the quarter, Pate found the end zone himself with a 15-yard scramble that put the Tigers up 39-26 with mere minutes left before the final whistle.
