By Johnny Sanders, Sports Editor
BIRMINGHAM – The Center Point Eagles’ season has been one of ups and downs thus far in Grady Griffin’s first year at The Nest and Friday night was most certainly an “up.” The Eagles traveled over to Wenonah High School with a 2-4 record, reeling from a big loss to Minor, while the home standing Dragons came in on homecoming with a 4-2 record. Both defenses stood tall in a game that saw the scoreboard stay at 0-0 until the first overtime period, where the Eagles shocked Wenonah and took home a 7-0 victory.
The Dragons came in averaging around 38 points per game while the Center Point offense has struggled at times this season due to a young, inexperienced group. The Eagles’ defense has played very well this season despite some misleading point totals that were tallied against them.
The Eagles got close to scoring at times, but turnovers and penalties spelled doom for the young Center Point team. Kelvin Williams Jr really stepped up for the Eagles’ defense in the game, making some key tackles on late downs to keep the Wenonah offense in check.
Caleb Cowan and Jayden Moore kept the Wenonah quarterback scrambling for much of the night as well.
Neither team reached the end zone, sending the game into overtime.
Center Point started with the ball and, with the game on the line, Dae’mon Canty asked for the ball to be put into his hands and he raced 10 yards into the end zone to put up the first points of the game and put his team up 7-0.
Wenonah would get a chance as well, but the Center Point defense would simply do what they had done all night. Come up with big stops. There was no bigger stop than when, on fourth down, the Wenonah quarterback took the snap and, before he knew it, he had Kenneth Williams in his face. Williams sacked the Dragon quarterback and ended the game as the team stormed the field in celebration.
“I want to tip my cap to Coach Howard and his team,” said Center Point coach Grady Griffin. “They played a clean football game. Our boys played team football. Coach Flipp and our defensive staff did a phenomenal job with their game plan and they pitched a shutout. Coach Shepard’s special teams was very sound. They put us in favorable positions. Coach Brazier and the offensive staff are consistently putting the offense in position to be explosive and at the right time, that will click. Dae’mon Canty asked me to give him the ball and he would win it for us. He did just that. Kenny Williams closed out the game with a sack and today was his birthday too. Thank you to our fans for traveling and cheering until the final whistle. Lastly, thank you to Tyler for being the only member from the Tribune to pick Center Point to win.”
The Eagles improve to 3-4 on the season, 2-2 in the region. They take on a tricky Woodlawn team next Friday in a key region game.
