Mistakes doom Athens in loss to Sparkman
Turnovers play a part in defeat; Sparkman defeats Athens 28-10
By Huntsville Times and Decatur Daily and Ronak Patel
ATHENS — Sparkman quarterback Wes Alexander rushed eight times for 105 yards, scored on runs of 1 and 80 yards, and threw a 28-yard touchdown pass to Jesmond Rivers to lead the Senators to a 28-10 football win over Athens on Friday night.Sparkman (7-3) hosts Spain Park in the Class 6A playoffs next week.Athens (5-5) will travel to the Region 6 second seed in a 5A gameA week after defeating Decatur for the Class 6A, Region 8 championship, the Sparkman Senators didn't miss a beat in defeating Athens 28-10 at Golden Eagles stadium.Athens, which finished the regular season 5-5 overall, will play either Etowah or Oxford on the road in the first round of 5A state playoffs.Athens coach Allen Creasy was not happy with team's play against Sparkman."We didn't execute and we made a lot of mistakes," Creasy said.On Athens' first possession of the game, Sparkman's Alex Holmes stripped the ball from the Golden Eagles and recovered the fumble on the third-down play.After the turnover, Wes Alexander scored on a 1-yard run to give Sparkman the early 7-0 lead.The game remained that way until Alexander took a quarterback draw 80 yards for his second touchdown of the first half with 3:28 left in the second quarter.On the play, Alexander faked to running back Troy Nance, and the majority of the Athens' defense went with Nance, and that left Alexander with a wide hole to run through."They went for the fake and I just took off," Alexander said.In the first half, Athens was held to minus-26 yards rushing and couldn't get anything going against Sparkman's defense."Their defense is tough," Creasy said.However, Athens struck quickly on the first play from scrimmage in the second half.Jeremie Slaughter took a toss sweep 80 yards to cut Sparkman's lead to 14-7.On the ensuing kickoff, Sparkman's Rafael Gibson let the ball slip through his fingers and Athens' Jonathan Johnson recovered the ball. The turnover led to a Jake Mathias' 31-yard field goal.After three minutes of the third quarter, Sparkman's lead was down to 4."The plays we made to start the second half was a big lift for our team, but Sparkman took control," Creasy said.Well, it was Sparkman's special teams that took the momentum away from Athens.After punting midway through the third quarter, Senators' linebacker Chris Wilson delivered a hard hit to Athens' Nick Pickett .That resulted in a fumble, which was recovered by the Senators.On the third play following the turnover, Alexander found Jusmon Rivers for a 29-yard touchdown pass to give Sparkman a 21-10 lead."Wilson's hit gave our team the momentum back," Alexander said.In the third quarter, Sparkman fumbled away three punt returns, two by Tim Johnson and one by Gibson.As a result, Sparkman coach Roger Haynes and his staff went to an eleven-man front on Athens' punt early in the fourth quarter.The move paid off as Martin Bradley blocked the punt by Mathias.Tollowing an all-out pursuit by both teams for the loose ball, Sparkman's Taron Ryce found his way to it. He picked it up and scored a touchdown to make it 28-10."We made the switch to the 11-man front because our kids were not handling the punts," Haynes said.Despite the loss, Creasy knows a new season begins next week for his Athens squad."It's a new season and we wipe the slate clean and begin 0-0," Creasy said.The Senators' win pushed them to 7-3, which set a record for the most regular-season wins in the program's history."We're happy to make history, but we still have work to do," Haynes said. Sparkman will host Spain Park in the first round the 6A playoffs next week. |
