Impressive 2nd half propels Bucs to victory

PHENIX CITY – The high-profile matchup of preseason top five foes wasn’t even on the slate until late Tuesday afternoon.

But that didn’t stop the Hoover High School football team from putting forth an impressive showing to knock off last fall’s Class 7A runner-up. The Bucs scored 24 unanswered points to start the second half and knocked off Central-Phenix City 45-35 on Friday night at Garrett-Harrison Stadium.

“We’ve got to be able to be a team that can enforce our will on folks at the end of the game,” Hoover head coach Josh Niblett said. “We were able to do that.”

No. 4 Hoover (1-0) was slow out of the gate, falling two touchdowns behind to No. 2 Central-Phenix City (0-1), a team playing its first game under new head coach Patrick Nix. Caleb Nix, Patrick’s son, threw a 17-yard touchdown pass to Jackson Meeks to open the game’s scoring and made it 14-0 when he ran for an 18-yard score on the Red Devils’ next possession.

Despite the comeback, Meeks was a nightmare matchup for the Bucs all evening. He finished with an absurd 233 yards on 13 catches with three touchdowns. He scored a fourth time in the third quarter, but the play was called back due to a taunting penalty.

“They’ve got some really, really good personnel and Patrick does a really, really good job,” Niblett said.

Hoover and Central had plenty of their own offensive fireworks throughout the first half. RJ Hamilton caught two touchdown passes from Josh Lundy, now the full-time starting quarterback in his senior season. Joseph Buffett caught a 22-yard pass down the sideline from Lundy as well, but Central took a 28-21 lead into the halftime break on the strength of Meek’s three scores.

Lundy finished the evening 15-of-28 passing for 311 yards and three touchdowns. Hamilton was his favorite target, as the two connected eight times for 223 yards and the pair of scores.

Hoover’s defense turned up the heat in the third quarter. Central’s first four possessions of the second half resulted in a punt, turnover on downs, Jason Riles interception and a fumble.

“We just needed to give the [defense] a little shot in the arm and we were able to do that in the third quarter,” Niblett said. “We were able to get off the field on third downs and we forced a couple turnovers.”

The turnover on downs was forced by a Marcus Williams sack. Williams, Josh Smith and Matthew Palmer each contributed six tackles for the Bucs.

Hoover took its first lead midway through the third quarter, with Ahamari Williams’ 1-yard run making it 35-28. Dylan Pauley scored the Bucs’ other two touchdowns in the second half, scoring on runs of 5 and 26 yards. He finished the night with 66 yards on 18 carries.

The Central touchdown taken away for Meeks’ taunting penalty was a critical moment in the game. Instead of the play resulting in a game-tying touchdown to stem Hoover’s momentum, Riles picked off a Nix pass in the end zone a few plays later to give the Bucs possession once again.

The opening game taking place at all was a victory in and of itself. Hoover originally planned to play Lowndes (Ga.) at Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta, before the game was moved to a local high school. The game was canceled altogether later in the summer and Hoover added a home date with Dothan last month. After Dothan was forced to pull out of its commitment to play, Hoover found a competitive partner mere days before the game.

"I’m proud of our kids and proud of what they were able to do,” Niblett said. “For the first game, it was pretty clean. We’ve just got to continue to work.”

Hoover hosts Bessemer City next week, while Central takes to the road to play Eufaula.