Wildcats dominate No. 7 St. Clair County to reach 5A state quarterfinals
Story By Jason Bowen
Scottsboro head coach Tyler Vann did not think his team needed extra motivation for Friday’s second-round playoff game, but Vann said the Wildcats got it courtesy of their opponent.
“They said they could score 40 points on anybody,” Vann said. “I played that video the last two days for them. There was a lot of talk this week. I look for stuff, and if you just throw it out, we’re going to take the bait. We didn’t need anything extra but they gave it.”
Scottsboro forced three St. Clair County turnovers on the No. 7-ranked Saints’ first three possessions before building a 21-0 halftime lead en route to a 42-6 Class 5A second-round playoff victory at Trammell Stadium Friday night.
It was the first ever win against a 10-win team for Scottsboro (8-4) and secured the Wildcats’ first trip to the state quarterfinals since 2016 and their fourth quarterfinal appearance all-time since the AHSAA adopted a five-round playoff format in 1984.
Scottsboro (8-4) advanced to play at No. 4 Fairview (12-0) in a Class 5A state quarterfinal matchup next week. Fairview defeated Jacksonville 28-13 in another second-round contest. The Scottsboro-Fairview winner will play either No. 2 Moody or Briarwood Christian in the state semifinals Nov. 28.
St. Clair County (10-2) came into Friday’s Round 2 clash averaging 39.4 points per game, but the its first three possessions ended in an interceptions by Scottsboro’s Kade Matayo and fumble recoveries by UNA commit Taygan Harris and Zay Simpson, the last of which was forced by Eli Worthy’s quarterback sack.
Scottsboro took advantage of the turnovers, taking a 14-0 lead on 1-yard touchdown runs by Jayden Gilbert and Colton Harding and the first of Cole Raeuchle’s six extra points. The Wildcats then used a brother-to-brother connection to up the lead to 21-0 when Harding rolled right and threw back to his left down field to his wide-open brother Cooper, who took it the rest of the way for a 50-yard touchdown.
St. Clair County threatened to score just before halftime, but its 12-play, 68-yard drive ended without points when a fourth-down pass into the end zone was incomplete.
Scottsboro then made sure there would be no second-half rally for the Saints. Gilbert returned the second-half kickoff 46 yards, and runs of 2 and 28 yards from Jacobi Edmondson and 9 yard by Gilbert led to Gilbert’s 2-yard touchdown run to up the Wildcats’ lead to 28-0 just 2:20 into the third quarter. Scottsboro scored again following a Jake Turner interception, turning the short field into a 7-yard touchdown run by Edmondson before taking a 42-0 lead when Harding hit Cohen Thompson for a 16-yard touchdown pass on the first play of the fourth quarter.
A muffed punt recovery deep in Scottsboro territory helped St. Clair County avoid the shutout on Jordan Thomas’ 1-yard touchdown run with 5:13 remaining.
Scottsboro outgained St. Clair County 275-183. Edmondson ran for 167 yards on 22 carries and Gilbert had 41 yards on nine carries while Harding was 6-of-8 passing for 104 yards. The Wildcats defense held St. Clair County quarterback Landyn Smith to 102 yards passing, his third fewest total of the season.
“(St. Clair County has) a really good offense. They really have scored 40 on just about everybody, but we came out and dominated a really good offense. (Defensive coordinator Justin) Little did a really good job of checking when they checked. Our guys communicated well too because we were giving them a lot of different looks and a bunch of different coverages. We came up and made a lot of plays on people in space,” Vann said. “We really dominated the line of scrimmage. That’s where we thought as a coaching staff we could win the football game. We played really good in all three phases. They’re a really good football team. We just played really good tonight. I’m super proud of our guys. We’re just getting started. We’ve got to go get ready for the quarters next week.”
