Weather delay no match for Bucs
MONTGOMERY -- A 51-minute rain delay wasn’t enough to slow down the Hoover High School football team on Friday night, as the Buccaneers took the Champions Challenge trophy with a 23-7 victory over Central-Phenix City at the Cramton Bowl.
“Our theme all week was to stay focused, because there are a lot of variables with the first game (of the season),” said Hoover head coach Josh Niblett.
Central-Phenix City (0-1) scored on a Jaxton Carson 8-yard run midway through the first quarter, but the Red Devils never dented the scoreboard again.
Hoover (1-0) picked up a pair of touchdowns in the second quarter, both from two yards out. The Bucs used a bit of trickery to score the first one, as quarterback Garrett Farquhar rolled out to the left and flipped the ball to tight end Joseph Timpa for the score.
A 35-yard punt return from Cortez Hall set the Bucs up with a short field late in the second quarter, and Farquhar dove into the end zone to give his squad a 14-7 lead heading into the locker room.
During the first drive of the second half, a lightning delay halted the action for 51 minutes.
“It was really difficult trying to stay hydrated,” said Hoover receiver Shedrick Jackson, who began the third quarter with a 48-yard catch. “Those breaks will really get to you. You’ve got to drink up.”
Play resumed but the rain continued to fall for the duration, causing each team to struggle holding onto the ball, notably in the punt return game, as each side muffed a punt in the second half.
Barret Pickering nailed three field goals in the second half after misfiring on his first one of the evening. He knocked them home from 32, 37 and 29 yards out to provide the only scoring in the second half.
Not abnormal to the first game in the Alabama climate, the Bucs dealt with some cramping issues in the latter portions of the game, including with Farquhar. Jalen Parker relieved Farquhar to begin the fourth quarter and finished the game as the QB.
“That’s a big deal, because at practice we work on getting him reps. He has a whole team behind him,” Jackson said of Parker.
Farquhar finished 8-of-25 passing on the wet track, throwing for 153 yards and the scoring pass to Timpa.
For the Red Devils, Zion Webb was 6-for-26 for 51 yards and a pair of interceptions. On the ground, he gained game-high 90 yards.
Vonte’ Brackett, R.J. Randle and C.J. Sturdivant shared the load on the ground for the Bucs, and combined for 76 yards. Jackson and Hall went for 75 and 69 yards receiving, respectively.
Ben Abercrombie and Will Singleton each intercepted passes in the final four minutes of the game to seal the win for the Bucs.
Abercrombie led all tacklers with 11 in the contest. Kholbe Coleman-Abrams had six first-half tackles and finished the night with eight.
“I felt like we played pretty solid on defense. It started with the D-line,” Coleman-Abrams said.
“We celebrate the winning,” Niblett said. “There are some things we could’ve done better, but at the same time, we won the football game. Championship football teams have got to learn how to win when the variables and the circumstances don’t go their way.”
Central-Phenix City head coach Jamey Dubose thought his defense played well enough to win the game, as the Red Devils held Hoover to just 214 yards on the evening.
“I was really pleased with the way we played defensively,” Dubose said. “Our goal is to score 28 points to win a ballgame. If we score 28 tonight, we win the ballgame, so our defense did exactly what it was supposed to do.”
Hoover makes a trip to Allen, Texas, next week to participate in the Tom Landry Classic against Allen High School. Central-Phenix City travels to Fairfield.
“A lot of our kids have never flown before,” Niblett said. “When we get there, we want to make a good performance because we’re representing our state.”