What everyone else at Holly Pond viewed as an insurmountable deficit, B.J. Smalls saw as an opportunity.

With Hanceville trailing 50-30 midway through the third quarter of last Friday’s county and region contest, the fleet-footed tailback dug deep instead of giving up, running free for three of the Bulldogs’ four touchdowns during a closing stretch of 30 unanswered points to complete a crazy 60-50 comeback.

Smalls’ second-half scores of 8, 45 and 33 yards zapped the momentum right out of a Bronco squad that, for most of the night, had appeared well on its way to snapping the state’s longest active losing streak at 27 games.

Instead, it was Smalls, who also had a 44-yard TD in the first quarter, and the Purple and Gold who found a way to escape with hopes of first-round hosting rights still intact.

Not to mention their second straight Player of the Week award.

Last Monday, it was Branen Hurst. This one, it’s Smalls, who turned 28 carries for 253 rushing yards, the four touchdowns and nine total tackles into the title of The Cullman Times Player of the Week, sponsored by Christian and Son Heating and Cooling.

Smalls edged a five-TD first half by Cold Springs’ Christian Crandall and a balanced effort by Fairview’s Ragan Ashley for the top local prize.

The Hanceville-Holly Pond shootout produced five total player mentions — two for the Dawgs (Smalls and Hurst) and three for the Broncos (Michael Lambert, Dylan Morton and Caleb Jones) — in the Alabama High School Athletic Association’s latest Prep Spotlight release. Cold Springs’ Crandall and Jon Campbell, Fairview’s Ashley, Austin Harris and Sambo Woods, West Point’s Kobe Smith, and Cullman’s Ethan McMinn also graced the state’s weekly list of highlights.

Hurst chipped in four scores of his own for Hanceville, as well as a number of 2-point conversions. The junior signal-caller had 163 yards and a touchdown through the air and 57 yards and another three TDs on the ground.

Lambert, Morton and Jones each had a hand in at least three TDs during Holly Pond’s high-scoring opening 30 minutes.

Lambert picked up one with his legs and the other three with his arm on 19-of-33 passing for 332 yards. All three scoring strikes were tossed to Morton, who finished with five catches for 169 yards, including the six-point grabs of 38, 9 and 71 yards.

Jones put the Broncos up 28-22 with a 80-yard kickoff return for a touchdown midway through the second quarter and ran for 87 yards and two more scores.

Crandall needed just seven carries to pile on 182 rushing yards and four touchdowns in Cold Springs’ playoff-clinching 42-14 win over Sumiton Christian. The versatile senior, who recorded a fifth score with a 63-yard catch, tallied TDs on runs of 23, 15, 40 and 63 yards.

Crandall and the Eagles’ stable of backs racked up 267 rushing yards by halftime behind offensive lineman Jon Campbell, whom the team rallied around after his father died earlier in the week following a year-long battle with leukemia.

Cold Springs’ emotional effort was one of three finalists for this week’s AHSAA Prep Spotlight.

Ashley did a little bit of everything in Fairview’s 48-15 homecoming drubbing of Douglas, going 11 of 19 for 229 passing yards and two TDs, adding 98 yards and another score on 10 rushes, and contributing an interception and forced fumble on defense. Both touchdowns were thrown to Sambo Woods, who had eight receptions for 150 yards.

Harris held down the Aggies’ ground attack, collecting 160 yards and four TDs on 23 carries.

Smith continued to carry the load for West Point, churning out 179 rushing yards and a touchdown on a whopping 40 carries in a last-second 28-25 loss to East Limestone.

McMinn made his latest impact when Cullman needed it most, playing a part in the ’Cats must-win 13-10 triumph at Decatur with an interception in the red zone, a 3-yard touchdown run for the game-winner and a victory-sealing tote to move the chains on fourth-and-inches inside the final minute. As if all that weren’t enough, he also made 10 tackles.

This week’s AHSAA Spotlight was shone on Walker’s defense for forcing nine turnovers in a 24-0 win over Jackson-Olin. Ethan Walker had three interceptions for the Vikings, who pitched their first shutout since 2013.

Leeds’ Tydarryl Marshall was the other finalist. He scored on a 9-yard run, a 45-yard punt return, a 45-yard catch and also threw a touchdown in a 54-0 blanking of Childersburg.