Sylacauga's De'Morris Bledsoe outruns the Chelsea defense in the second half on Friday. Photo by Brian Schoenhals
“The thing is we have to learn how to finish games,” Sylacauga head coach Matt Griffith said. “We controlled the game the entire ballgame, you are up by two scores the entire ballgame and you just find a way to lose it at the end. I kept saying to the kids we have to stop making young mistakes and I know that we are young in spots, but we can’t make those mistakes and win. Tonight it happened, we got beat by one point and it is a game that we should have easily won, but didn’t. Hats off to Chelsea, they did a good job and their kids found a way to win at the end.”
Late in the fourth quarter after stopping Sylacauga’s bruising running back De’Morris Bledsoe three inches short of what would have been a game sealing first down, the Hornets (1-1,1-0) took over at their own 20-yard line down by 6 points. There was just 3:39 left in the ballgame. Jake Ganus showed poise as he orchestrated an 80-yard drive that broke the Aggies (1-1, 0-1). The junior quarterback completed 9-13 passes during the game winning drive. On third and 3 from the Aggies 11-yard line Ganus connected with Jake Campbell on a slant pattern to tie the game up at 34-34 with 39.4 left in the game. Ashley Page booted the extra point to give the Hornets the 35-35 victory.
“Every Thursday we go 80-yards,” Chelsea head coach Wade Waldrop said. We put ‘x’ amount of time on the clock and say however many timeouts you have. We practice it every Thursday, so our kids are used to that situation. They handled it just like we did on (Thursday) at practice and that just shows you practice like you play. I saw the coolness in their eyes and we had a bunch of guys the last two drives to just make the huge plays. We had multiple guys make plays and guys blocked better in those two drives than they had the whole game. We had a lot of guys make a lot of plays, so it was a positive night.”
The loss caps off what has been a tough week for the Aggies, as well as the Sylacauga community. On Tuesday morning tragedy struck as Aggie Shaq Pope lost his mother. The student body and the community rallied around Pope at game. Some students wore black shirts with Pope’s name on the back of it to show support and when Pope made a play on defense the crowd roared loudly and gave him a standing ovation.
“It has been an extremely tough week,” Griffith said. “This probably was one of the toughest weeks that I have faced as a coach. Even probably tougher than last year when we lost Coach Mitchell, but those things are things that you have to overcome. You have to overcome adversity; you have to be mentally tough enough to overcome things when they happen. I think our kids got close to doing that, we just have to do a better job of it.”
In the first half, the Aggies looked like they were on their way to an easy victory.
Sylacauga didn’t waste anytime putting points on the board in the first quarter. The Aggies took their opening possession 71-yards for a touchdown. On the second play of the drive Cheston Wesson sprinted around right end for a 47-yard gain down to the Chelsea 30-yard line. After stopped behind the line of scrimmage for a loss, Bledsoe broke two tackles in the backfield and exploded down the left sideline for a 31-yard touchdown. The extra point attempt was wide, to give the Aggies a 6-0 lead with 10:03 in the first quarter.
Through out the first quarter the Hornets had the ball deep in the Aggies’ territory, but the Sylacauga defense didn’t allow a touchdown. On the Hornets’ opening drive Ganus led them down to the Aggies 12-yard line, the possession ended with an interception by Jeremy Murphy in the end zone.
Chelsea once again drove the ball deep into Sylacauga territory, but Blair Mayfield ended the Hornets threat as he picked off Ganus.
After two three and outs and a turnover the Aggies offense finally got back on track. Brantley Carr returned a punt 42-yards to give the Aggies the ball at the Chelsea 33-yard line. Matt Collier got the Aggies offense going, calling his own numbers for runs of 3 and 13-yards. Collier then found Wesson wide open on a bootleg for a 17-yard touchdown. Bledsoe dove into the end zone for the two-point conversion to give the Aggies a 14-0 lead with 4:57 left in the second quarter.
The Hornet offense responded with a drive of their own for a touchdown. Julius McCall had runs of 12 and 23 yards on the first two plays of the drive to give the Hornet the ball at the Aggies 25-yard line. Ganus scored a few plays later on a keeper. Page’s extra point attempt was good to cut the lead to 14-7.
The Aggies put together a 72-yard drive together for a touchdown to end the first half. Collier threw up a jump ball on second and goal from the 7-yard line and Stephen Gooden came down with the ball between two Hornet defenders for the touchdown. The extra point attempt was good to make it 28-14 going into halftime.
The second half turned into a track meet, as both teams struggled to come up with stops on the defensive side of the ball.
The Hornets came out the locker room and scored a touchdown to cut the Aggies lead down to 21-14. DJ Washington capped off the 47-yard drive with a 6-yard touchdown.
The Aggies responded on their opening drive of the second half. Bledsoe once again would not be denied on the third play of the drive as he broke numerous tackle to sprint down the right side line for a 71-yard touchdown. Austin Master’s extra point was good to give the Aggies a 28-14.
On the ensuring kickoff Ganus found a lot of open turf in front of him as he returned the kick 60 yards to the Aggies 30-yard line. Ganus connected with McCall for an 11-yard touchdown. Page’s extra point attempt was good to make it 28-21 with 3:17 left in the third.
The Hornets’ defense struggled once again to stop the Aggies running attack. Collier sprinted 47 yards on a keeper down to the Chelsea 8-yard line. Bledsoe would do the rest two plays later as he scored from 4-yards out to make it 34-21.
Ganus kept making things happen for his team as he led the Hornets 80 yards for a touchdown. The key play of the drive was when Ganus fumbled the snap, picked up the football and found Washington for a 14-yard completion down to the Aggies 8-yard line. Washington scored on the next play. The extra point attempt was good to make it 34-28 with 6:06 left in the game.
Ganus finished the game with 286 yards passing for the Hornets.
“He is a heck of a player,” Waldrop said. “He is a little raw, but we love him. We love his leadership and he is never going to quite and we know that. I think our team feeds off that.”
Campbell recorded 122 yards receiving. McCall rushed for 75 yards and had 86 receiving yards.
Bledsoe had another stellar game for the Aggies. The senior bulldozed his way to 181 yards on 17 carries and three touchdowns. Collier went 11-22 passing for 158 yards and two scores. He also rushed for 57 yards.
“They did a great game of trying to take De’Morris (Bledsoe) out and take away our run game,” Griffith said. “Matt (Collier) had a good night passing the football. I think that we did some things well, but we have got a long way to go before we are a good football team.”
The Aggies take on region rival Talladega on Sept.10 at 7 p.m. from Mary Dumas Stadium.
Contact LaVonte Young at lyoung@dailyhome.com
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