McGill-Toolen holds off Baldwin County and heads to playoffs; Bryant slams Jackson-Olin for biggest win since 2008

 

 

By ROBERT LADNIER

MOBILE —McGill-Toolen pieced together a 12-play drive that ate up the final 6:20 to preserve a 21-14 win over visiting Baldwin County at the Lipscomb Complex Friday night.

Quarterback Blane Barre completed 12 of 20 passes for 175 yards and a touchdown and ran for 83 yards on 11 carries and another TD for the Yellow Jackets (6-4, 5-3 6A Region 1), who won five straight to close the regular season and captured the fourth and final playoff seed from the region. McGill-Toolen will visit Pike Road in the first round. BCHS finished 2-8, 2-6.

The Jackets built a 21-0 lead in the third quarter before the Tigers rallied to make it close.

Barre threw a 9-yard scoring pass to Jack Lenaghan in the first quarter and Ladarien Miller, who ran for 48 yards on 14 carries, added a 1-yard TD run in the second quarter. Barre’s 8-yard TD run in the third quarter made it 21-0.

BCHS countered with Rayvon Johnson’s 8-yard touchdown pass to Alex Maynard late in the third quarter and Hayden Coley’s 4-yard TD pass to Jordan Bishop midway through the fourth quarter but the Tigers didn’t get their hands on the ball again. Coley was 12-of-27 passing for 101 yards.

 

Bryant 44,

Jackson-Olin 6

 

Jayden James rushed for 131 yards on 23 carries to go over 1,000 yards for the season and Anthony Sturgis scored two touchdowns as the Class 7A Hurricanes blasted the playoff-bound Class 6A Mustangs in Irvington.

Sturgis scored on runs of 8 and 35 yards and finished with 88 yards on 12 carries for Bryant, which closed at 3-7 — all of those victories outside of 7A Region 1 — for its 22^nd consecutive losing season. But it was the Hurricanes’ largest margin of victory since a 49-6 win over Baker in 2008 under coach Ronnie Cottrell.

“These kids come to work every day and they believe in themselves and each other,” Bryant coach Bart Sessions said. “We’re very young — we have 40 sophomores on the roster — so we’re striving to get better. There’s nothing but pride with these kids.”

Makai Vongsengphachanh added 41 yards on nine carries and a touchdown for the Hurricanes.

Bryant led 11-0 in the first quarter on Henry Nguyen’s 27-yard field goal and Sturgis’ 8-yard run.

The Hurricanes made it 24-0 in the second quarter on Vongsengphachanh’s 1-yard run and Sturgis’ 35-yard run.

Trashawn McCall returned a blocked punt in the third quarter to make it 31-0 and fourth-quarter touchdowns of 8 yards by Kevin Hernandez and 25 yards by Abrahm Collier sealed the victory over Jackson-Olin (4-6), which meets No. 1-ranked Clay-Chalkville in the first round of the playoffs on Nov. 7.

— Arthur Mack