By Josie Howell, The St. Clair Times
SPRINGVILLE — Oxford beat Springville 26-17 on Friday, and the Yellow Jackets will try to clinch a region championship next week against Fort Payne;
“Every win is a huge win,” Oxford head coach Sam Adams said. “Now that it puts us in a favorable situation next week where we control our own destiny, if we’re fortunate enough to play well enough to win, then we’ll be the region champs.”
During an eventful first half, Oxford quickly put the first points on the board as defensive back Jaden Dobbins intercepted a pass on the third play of the game and ran it to the Tigers’ 5-yard line.
After working the ball to the 1-yard line, Yellow Jackets quarterback Sam Robertson put the ball in the end zone for a touchdown. A missed extra point put the game at 6-0.
In an attempt to answer, Tigers quarterback Ashton Frye ran the ball for 57 yards to the 28-yard line. After the Yellow Jackets forced a fourth down, the Tigers kicked a successful field goal to close the gap 6-3.
Oxford’s Jayden Thomas led his team through the next possession as the running back took the ball from the 35-yard line to the Tigers’ 10 for a 65-yard gain. He immediately followed the big play with a touchdown to pull away 13-3 and finish out the first quarter.
Going into the second quarter, The Yellow Jackets forced a punt on the Tiger’s next possession. On the return, Dobbins ran the ball to the Tigers’ 10-yard line. Robertson scored to make it 13-3.
The Yellow Jackets’ defense continued to play strong throughout the half as Miguel Mitchell made Oxford’s second interception of the night, returning the ball 65 yards to the 10-yard line.
A fumble rolled the ball back to the 50-yard line to make it second down with 40-plus yards to go, but the Yellow Jackets got out of trouble, and Robertson posted his third touchdown of the night to end the half 26-3.
To open the last half Springville’s defense showed its strength as it limited the Yellow Jackets to no touchdowns for the rest of the game while the Tigers’ offense put two more touchdowns on the board to close the gap.
After the Tigers recovered a fumble with less than two minutes in the third quarter, Johnnie Wolf ran for a 44-yard touchdown. Frye then scored a successful 2-point conversion to put the score 11-26.
The Tigers finished the game with an 11-yard touchdown by Noel Cox on a fourth down play. A missed extra point by the Tigers put the final score 26-17.
Springville head coach Jon Clements said it wasn’t his team’s best night offensively.
“I feel like we need to learn how to hang onto the ball and not give it to the other team,” he said. “It’s frustrating, our defense has played really, really well, Oxford’s team was really good again, but offensively we just kept giving it to them.”
He emphasized, however, he was proud of his team’s efforts.
“I saw a bunch of guys play their hearts out, even when things didn’t go good, we made bad plays, we turned right around and made a good one and they fought their butt off and that’s what I’m proud of most.”