Wildcats claw rival to clinch second straight region title
Story By Jason Bowen
A big smile crept across the typical intense face of Scottsboro head football coach Tyler Vann.
A region repeat can do that to a coach.
Scottsboro defeated rival Arab 28-7 to claim a second consecutive Class 5A Region 8 championship during Friday night’s region finale for the Wildcats at the Arab City Schools Sportsplex.
The Wildcats claimed their 11th area/region title in program history and repeated as a region champion for the first time since the AHSAA went to the current region format for high school football starting with the 2000 season.
Two weeks after suffering a stunning loss to a struggling Brewer team, Scottsboro (6-3, 5-1) bounced back with wins over playoff-bound teams then No. 5-ranked Guntersville and Arab to continue its region reign.
“They were able to put two (good) weeks together after something that we weren’t proud of,” Vann said. “To answer the bell and do that in back-to-back weeks against two good football teams (and) end up winning (the region), I’m really proud of these kids.”
Scottsboro’s night started on a great note as senior Quincie Franklin returned the opening kickoff 80 yards for a touchdown to give the Wildcats a 7-0 lead just 15 seconds into the game after the first of Cole Raeuchle’s four extra points.
“Coach Mac (special teams coordinator Mack Malone) did a really good job of dialing that up,” Vann said. “We felt like we had a really good opportunity on special teams to bust one. We wanted them to leave it on the hash, and they did a good job of getting it to the numbers. They were really trying to get us to play a third of the field, and No. 11 (Franklin) out ran the one guy he needed to out run. He got to the sideline and we knew it was house.”
The Wildcats upped their lead to 14-0 in the second quarter on Conner Vaden’s 34-yard touchdown run, but Arab (4-4, 3-2), aided by two pass interference calls, opened the third quarter with a scoring drive that was capped off by Landon Pitt’s 11-yard touchdown run.
But Scottsboro answered with a scoring drive of its own, a seven-play, 65-yard march that included two big pass plays — Colton Harding threw a 16-yard pass to Theron Miles on a third-and-3 and Conner Vaden found Cohen Thompson on a trick play on third-and-6 for a 30-yard gain to the Arab 8-yard line — and culminated with Jayden Gilbert’s 8-yard touchdown run.
“We (convert) two big third downs and score a touchdown to answer,” Vann said. “That’s probably the drive of the game.”
Arab’s next possession took more than five minutes off the clock, but it ended with nothing when Scottsboro’s Jake Turner broke up a pass near the goal line early in the fourth quarter. Arab forced a Wildcat fumble with 6:46 remaining, but the Scottsboro defense forced the Knights to turn it over on downs, and a 26-yard Jacobi Edmondson run preceded a 21-yard Harding-to-Thompson touchdown pass with 4:31 remaining to seal the Wildcats’ third straight win over Arab.
Harding did not throw an incomplete pass, finishing 11-of-11 passing for 140 yards while Thompson had four catches for 81 yards and Gilbert and Miles had two each for 22 yards. Vaden, who had his streak of eight straight games with an interception on defense snapped, finished with 104 total yards (39 rushing, 30 passing, 35 receiving. Meanwhile, Edmondson ran for 127 yards on 15 carries while Gilbert had 29 yards on seven carries. Arab managed just 246 total yards against the Scottsboro defense, which got three tackles for loss from Taygan Harris, three pass break-ups from Vande and two from Turner and a fumble recovery from Lawson Lee.
Scottsboro is off next week before hosting defending Class 3A state champion Mars Hill in the regular-season finale Oct. 30. The Wildcats will then host the No. 4 playoff qualifier from Region 7 Nov. 7 in the opening round of the Class 5A playoffs.
“I’m just super proud of the guys. We were really down after (the Brewer loss), but we finally realized we couldn’t change it, that we had to move on, and they’ve done that and done something special. I’m really proud to be a part of this place.”
