PREP ROUNDUP: West Point earns 1st win of season; Addison, Cold Springs, Good Hope pick up region victories
Published 10:45 pm Friday, October 4, 2024
- HP D-clear.jpg
West Point had two opportunities to pick up its first victory of the season on Friday, but it only needed one.
In a tie game with 11 seconds left, Warriors head coach Kevin McCravy sent his field goal team out to attempt a game-winning kick. However, after Priceville also called a timeout, McCravy sent his offense back on the field for one more shot at the end zone instead of attempting the kick.
On the following play, Hunter Hensley connected with Bryant Moon for a 25-yard touchdown to give West Point a 28-21 win.
“We told them in the huddle we’ve got one shot, we’ve got to be quick, it has to be a shot in the end zone,” McCravy said. “If we didn’t get it, we would have run the field goal kicker out there to see if we could have won it in regulation with a kick. We knew we had one chance left and we just wanted to take one more shot.”
The shot — the score — gave West Point its first win of the season. And while any win, especially the first one, is special, Friday’s victory marks the first of several close games this season that the Warriors closed out.
“Three of our six games have been those really tight situations,” McCravy said. “Even last week (in a 16-14 loss) we were in a very similar situation when Hayden went down and scored with about 1:20 left. We got the ball back and couldn’t do much with it. It was good to bounce back the way we did. We were basically in that same position tonight, and I thought it showed a lot of guts after having lost a game in that same situation.”
Friday’s game with Priceville (2-4, 1-2 Class 5A, Region 7) was consistently as close as the final drive indicated. While West Point (1-5, 1-2 Region 7) led 14-7 at halftime, Priceville tied the game heading into the fourth quarter, and following a West Point touchdown, tied the game again late before the Warriors’ game-winning touchdown.
Offensively, West Point was led by Hensley, who threw one touchdown and rushed for another. Ollie Howell had two rushing touchdowns and Moon caught a touchdown. McCravy also noted the play of Christopher Skipper, who stepped into an offensive role, and Sylar Philyaw and Noah Laney on defense.
West Point continues Region 7 play next week on the road at East Limestone.
See more local roundup below.
Class 1A, Region 7
Addison 51, Waterloo 6
The Bulldogs broke a modest two-game skid with a blowout win on Friday night.
Jaxson Williams (two), Seth Hammack and Judah Wilkins each had touchdowns runs in the first half, while Bradley Willette added a pick-six for Addison, which held a 37-6 lead at intermission.
Elijah Roberts returned a punt for a touchdown and Wyatt Anderson scored from 1 yard out to cap the offensive production in the second half.
Addison (4-3, 3-1) travels to Meek next week.
Class 2A, Region 6
Cold Springs 26, West End 12
Matt Williams tallied three touchdowns to guide the Eagles to a road win on Friday night.
Mason Gable also had scoring run.
Cold Springs (4-3, 2-1) travels to Class 2A No. 3 Coosa Christian next week.
Class 4A, Region 5
Good Hope 39, Curry 3
The Raiders remained unbeaten following a dominant road win on Friday night.
Carter Rutherford (rush and punt return) and Tyler Cone (rush and pass to Ayden Young) each accounted for a pair of first-half touchdowns. Mason Drake also scored on the ground as Good Hope commanded a 33-3 halftime lead.
Karson Hollis provided the lone points of the second half on a lengthy scoring run.
Good Hope (6-0, 4-0) hosts Hamilton next week.
Class 3A, Region 8
Whitesburg Christian 25, Holly Pond 24
The Warriors completed a 96-yard touchdown pass and kicked the game-winning extra point with less than a minute left to stun the Broncos on Friday night.
Sawyer Olinger (two) and Boston Gibbs (one) had touchdown runs for Holly Pond, which held a 24-11 lead with 6:40 remaining.
Whitesburg Christian, though, scored shortly afterward to make it 24-18 and then came up with the play of the game to take home the win.
Holly Pond (2-4, 1-3) travels to Asbury next week.