Vigor’s Dylan Jackson (8) looks for room to run against Citronelle Friday night at Gatlin Field. Jackson scored on an 86-yard run in the fourth quarter as the No. 6 Wolves rolled to a 32-6 victory. (Bonita Roberts/Call News)
Citronelle’s Eli Owens (1) breaks away for a 49-yard gain on a pass from Daylon Edmunds early in Friday night’s game against Vigor. The big play set up the Wildcats’ only touchdown. (Bonita Roberts/Call News)
By JIMMY WIGFIELD
CITRONELLE — Vigor hasn’t had a close call all year unless the team buses ducked under a red light on the way to the next beatdown.
It seemed that might change Friday night when the Wolves were staring at a flashing yellow caution light early in the fourth quarter. They led Citronelle 14-6 and hadn’t been able to shake off the stubborn Wildcats, who were the rattlesnake that kept coming after the Wolves even after having its head chopped off.
But, suddenly, No. 6-ranked Vigor got the green light, scoring three touchdowns in a two-minute span early in the fourth quarter, two of them coming off interceptions and another on Dylan Jackson’s 86-yard TD run in which he vacuumed up the last remaining threads of the Wildcats’ weary defense on the way to a 32-6 victory at Gatlin Field.
“We’ve got a good football team,” Wolves coach John McKenzie said. “They’ve got a good football team. We knew we had to match their energy early, then let the talent take over. As long as we as coaches didn’t mess them up, the cream was going to rise to the top.”
It overflowed in the fourth quarter, as two of Vigor’s touchdowns came off interceptions thrown first by Citronelle starting quarterback Daylon Edmunds and another by backup Whyatt Nelson.
Wolves defensive back Brandon Coats intercepted the harassed Edmunds at the Wildcats’ 17 late in the third quarter and four plays later Carlos Benjamin scored from 4 yards out to make it 20-6 barely a minute into the fourth quarter.
On Citronelle’s next play, defensive lineman Devin Whitsett grabbed Nelson’s deflected pass and returned it 10 yards for a 26-6 lead.
“I saw it in the air and I had to go for it,” Whitsett said. “We had to get a stop. Defense wins games.”
After the Wildcats punted, Jackson broke his 86-yard TD run under circumstances that gave McKenzie one of his few reasons to worry going forward, for Jackson was in as the backup quarterback after junior star Sammy Dunn suffered a hand injury in the second half. Dunn had completed 11 of 22 passes for 164 yards and two first-quarter touchdowns before suffering the injury and getting his right hand iced in the fourth quarter.
McKenzie said he didn’t want to speculate on the prognosis.
“I don’t want to make a judgment on an injury,” McKenzie said. “He’ll get it looked at Saturday. We’ve got an off week now. But he’s a state championship quarterback and a lot of things will change for us if he can’t go.”
There is nothing uncertain about McKenzie’s defense, which has allowed only 33 points in five games.
After beating Blount 38-6 in the season opener, McKenzie observed: “We’ve got so much talent, we made it look easy.” Vigor has gotten serious since then, winning the next four by 163 points and beating the only team it has faced with a winning record by four touchdowns.
“They’ve got the number one defense in the state in 5A and it showed,” Citronelle coach Jason Rowell said. “And our defense isn’t bad.”
The Wildcats kept Vigor in the 36522 zip code for much of the game, even forcing the Wolves’ first turnover this season — Jeffery Rivers’ 87-yard interception return off Dunn to end the half and crush a Wolves threat.
But Vigor’s defense is in another universe. It held Citronelle to minus 17 yards of total offense and one first down in the second half, minus 5 yards rushing (191 yards under the Wildcats’ average) and forced so many third and longs it seemed as if Citronelle was snapping the ball from way down the street, starting at Fletcher Smith’s, going through the Splish Splash car wash, over the cupola atop the high school, to Bertile’s drive-through, then over the baseball field, the playground, the tennis courts and hooking around the plugged Howitzer and the splash pad.
The Wildcats never had a third and short. It looked this way, in order — third and 10, third and 11, third and 13, third and 11, third and 5, third and 7, third and 9, third and 12, third and 17, third and 24, third and 9 and third and 10. That’s an average of third and 12.
The Wolves committed to playing man coverage, stuffing the box, blitzing and daring Edmunds to win the game through the air. After completing four of his first five passes for 85 yards and a touchdown, he completed three of his last 12 for 5 yards.
“We’re good against the run,” McKenzie said. “We knew they’d try to extend plays and we made sure we (covered) somebody.”
Rowell acknowledged his team finally crashed on the rocks of Vigor’s athleticism but also threw down the gauntlet to his offensive line.
“They blitzed and that made it even harder to throw because we didn’t have the time to throw,” Rowell said. “We’ve got to be able to run the football, period. Our O-line has to take that as a challenge. They’ve got to become nastier and meaner and more physical. We’ve got to create an identity on the offensive line. That’s the challenge we’ve got pressing forward.”
Citronelle scored its only touchdown — and took a 6-0 lead — on fourth and 19 in the first quarter when Edmunds rolled to his right and found Kemarkys Howard settled into a short gain Vigor was willing to give up but Howard broke away for a 27-yard score.
But trailing for only the second time this season, the Wolves showed what a championship team looks like, responding with touchdown drives of 67 and 61 yards on their next two possessions, with Dunn throwing an 8-yard TD pass to Jamarion Osborne and a 41-yard fade to Gerritt Holcombe, who pulled out of the grasp of defensive back Caleb Benjamin.
“Their receivers became athletes and made plays,” Rowell said.
Vigor held that 14-6 lead until the fourth quarter.
Aside from Dunn’s injury, McKenzie must also deal with correcting the 13 penalties for 100 yards Vigor absorbed Friday night.
“We’re more disciplined than that,” he said.
An off week to figure out Dunn’s status and a favorable remaining schedule in which Williamson is the only region opponent with a winning record still has the Wolves on a Super 7 trajectory.
“This was our state championship game,” McKenzie said, then explained why — “We’ve won five in a row now and now they know we can win five games in a row in the playoffs.”
Vigor (5-0, 3-0 5A Region 1) pushed its lead in the Citronelle series to 18-4. Meanwhile, Rowell reflected on the chances of his Wildcats (3-2, 1-2) reaching the playoffs for the first time since 2019. Last week, Citronelle sheared off some of Williamson’s armor plating, scoring the first touchdowns the Lions had allowed all season before losing in overtime 28-26.
“I think we played two of the best teams in our region back-to-back,” Rowell said. “I think 5A Region 1 is probably the best 5A region in the state top to bottom and we gave one away last week and let one get away in the fourth quarter tonight. We can’t give up. We’ve got to get better.”
McKenzie said the Wildcats showed him plenty in the game film he watched and in the first three quarters Friday night.
“They look like a playoff team to me,” McKenzie said.
