By DRUW GIAMALVA, Sports Editor
ALBERTVILLE — It was a chaotic night at Vernon Wells Stadium on Friday night where the Albertville Aggies would celebrate Homecoming with a Class 5A, Region 8 matchup against the Douglas Eagles. The Eagles would claim their first-ever win over Albertville with a 29-26 comeback victory that saw Douglas score 12 unanswered points in the final three minutes of the ballgame to take home the region win.
“First off, that was one of the best high school football games that I’ve ever been a part of,” Douglas head coach Brandon Lyles said. “Hats off to Albertville. Neither team deserved to lose tonight. We both made enough mistakes for a season, but in the end, we were very fortunate. Our kids never quit.”
Friday’s matchup was the first time the two schools met since 2007 with Douglas picking up their first win in three tries against the Aggies. The win for Douglas puts them at 3-1 for the season and 2-1 in Region 8 play. After starting 2-0, the Aggies have now slid to 2-3 overall and 0-3 in Region 8 play.
The matchup between the Eagles and the Aggies started with Douglas on offense. Douglas would struggle with penalties early in the game as their first drive was struck with three penalties which included two holding calls. Despite the mistakes, Douglas’ offense would push through with first downs by quarterback Baker Lyles and running back Judson Murray. After driving down the field, Lyles would cap off the first drive with a 7-yard rushing touchdown. A 2-pt conversion run by Lyles would give the Eagles an early 8-0 lead over Albertville.
After Douglas’ first possession, both teams would struggle on offense that would last until the end of the first quarter. To open up the second quarter, Albertville would finally break free for a big play that would get them on the scoreboard with a 48-yard rushing touchdown by running back Eguensley Cerant to cut Douglas’ lead to 8-6.
The Aggies would take a big risk on the kick off as they went for a surprise onside kick that worked in their favor. Despite getting the ball back in their hands, an intentional grounding call would push the Aggies back and force them to punt the ball away to Douglas.
The first half would end with both teams turning the ball over on downs. Douglas would take a 8-6 lead into halftime.
Albertville would kick off the second half on offense. Disaster would strike early for the Aggies as a fumbled pitch would ruin the Aggies opening drive and cause them to punt away to Douglas.
On the following drive, the Eagles offense would also make a critical error as a fumble would be recovered by Albertville’s Zak Jenkins to give the Aggies the ball.
The Aggie’s next drive would focus heavily on the run game with Cerant and quarterback Jude Fann producing multiple first downs with their legs. The drive would be capped off by another touchdown by Cerant from 19-yards out to give Albertville their first lead at 12-8.
After the Albertville defense would cause a three-and-out on Douglas, Fann would launch a deep pass to wide receiver Cam Ballinger who would catch a 95-yard touchdown to put Albertville ahead 19-8.
The Eagles would respond with their own scoring drive with Lyles cashing in on his second rushing touchdown of the night from 5-yards out to make it a 19-14 score.
Albertville would steal the momentum right back from the Eagles as Imani Techeria would respond with a 90-yard kickoff return to put Albertville back in front 26-14 to start the fourth quarter.
After chewing through most of the clock, the Albertville offense would cough up a fumble to Douglas’ Landon Stewart to give them the ball with just four minutes remaining in the game.
It took just two plays for Douglas to cut Albertville’s lead to one possession as Lyles would launch a 63-yard touchdown pass to Maddox Duvall to make it a 26-21 score with 3:22 remaining in the game.
With just under a minute remaining, the Aggies would be forced to punt but a high snap would give Douglas the ball inside the 5-yard line.
Douglas would complete the comeback with 21.9 seconds remaining as Lyles would see Noah Williamson in the end zone for the game-winning touchdown. Douglas would go on to win 29-26.
“There is just no quit in this group,” Lyles said. “They found ways to make plays. They did a great job.”
After coming away with a comeback victory on the Aggies, Douglas will now focus on a non-region matchup next week when they travel to face the Collinsville Panthers.
The Aggies will enjoy a bye week next week but they will return to action on October 2 when they travel to face Mae Jemison in a Region 8 matchup.
Douglas quarterback Baker Lyles produced four total touchdowns in the 29-26 comeback victory over Albertville on Friday night. By DRUW GIAMALVA l The Leader
