By David Knox
Tribune Sports Editor
PINSON – “I was excited! I saw the ball on the ground and I said, ‘Oh, the ball’s on the ground!’ So I had to fall on it.”
Nico Simmons, a junior defensive lineman, knows those opportunities don’t come very often. But the Pinson Valley junior took advantage of the one that did and lived the lineman’s dream, scoring a touchdown.
That put the finishing touches on a solid job by the Indians defense in a 24-7 win over Pleasant Grove at Willie Adams Stadium Friday night.
“Defense played great, got a lot of stops,” Simmons said.
The Indians defense gave up one big play, a 34-yard touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback Caleb Jackson to John Chism with 11:39 left in the game to cut the margin to 17-7.
“Played good,” coach Matt Glover said. “They made a good play, we had a guy got beat. Hopefully, we’ll correct that by next week and move on. The good thing about it, we’ve got another week to play football.”
That’s because the Indians (7-3) were already locked into the Class 6A playoffs before facing Pleasant Grove, a Class 5A team, in a non-region game to close the regular season. Pinson Valley will travel to Jackson-Olin (8-2), the Region 5 runner-up.
The Spartans (4-6) are also ion the playoffs. They’ll travel to Mortimer Jordan next week.
The Indians shut down the Spartans’ running game all night. They allowed just 30 yards rushing in the first half and minus-6 on eight carries in the second half, the biggest loss coming when Desmond Scott and Simmons chased Jackson into his end zone where he was stripped pf the ball by Scott and Simmons plopped on the ball for the TD.
The Indians offense was effective enough and stepped off the gas with the lead.
But it was a defensive struggle early. The Indians turned it over twice on downs, the second time at the Pleasant Grove 14. But Pinson took the ensuing punt and moved 69 yards in five plays to take the lead. Jackie Matthews connected with Liallen Dailey for 16 yards and Khymel Chaverst blasted for another 15 yards. Matthews then hit Orion Morris on a slant for 28 yards down to the 7 and Chaverst needed just one try to finish it off. Saul Rios’ extra point made it 7-0 with 3:48 left in the half.
Chaverst rushed for 79 yards on 15 carries.
The Indians stopped Pleasant Grove on three plays and were eager to get more. But Ty Woods, trying to make something happen on the punt, bobbled it and the Spartans found themselves on the Indians Zeke Lawrence recovered it at the Pinson 35 with 1:13 to play. Two plays later, Matthews found Dailey open behind the defense for a 66-yard TD. Rios’ kick gave Pinson a 14-0 halftime lead.
“Jackie threw the ball well,” Glover said. “Main thing, he threw it to the right guys.”
Matthews finished 16-of-26 for 233 yards and the TD with no interceptions. There were several drops that could have been catches as well. Dailey had three catches for 80 yards, Morris had four for 70 and Dilan Henderson had five for 58.
The Indians scored the only points of the third quarter on Rios’ 37-yard field goal.
Damarkis Adams and Woods each recovered fumbled punts as the Spartans’ return men had troubles with Rios’ tumbling punts, and C.J. Rudolph and Demarco Harris each intercepted a pass as the Indians grabbed five turnovers to their one giveaway.
Andrew McKinney, Zapheth Cunningham, Rhassam Christian and Jaylun Gulley were also all over the field in addition to those defenders mentioned earlier.