Vigor defensive lineman Cameron Williams puts the heat on Benjamin Russell quarterback Kingston Preyear Friday night in Alexander City. The Wolves shut down Preyear and the Wildcats 20-10. (Will McLelland/Call News and al.com)
Vigor’s Jhi Brown breaks loose for the game-clinching 54-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter against Benjamin Russell Friday night in Alexander City. (Will McLelland/Call News and al.com)
By JIMMY WIGFIELD
ALEXANDER CITY — Vigor not only played well in all three phases of the game against Benjamin Russell Friday night, it performed as if it had invented them.
The No. 3-ranked Class 4A Wolves blocked a punt to set up a touchdown, got a 54-yard touchdown run from Jhi Brown to skewer the Wildcats in the fourth quarter and its defense pulled the innards out of No. 5-ranked Class 5A Benjamin Russell from the start in a 20-10 victory that, while impressive, had coach Renardo Jackson dreaming of how his team will look when it plays four good quarters.
Vigor’s defense strangled one of the South’s highest-rated college quarterback prospects for all but one play and by the time Kingston Preyear launched a 72-yard touchdown pass to Jamichael Greer late in the game, the Wolves’ buses were already warming up for a triumphant ride back to Prichard.
Vigor (4-1) held the Wildcats (3-2) to only 25 yards rushing, made third down downright toxic and transmitted a warning to the rest of Class 4A that the Wolves are drooling over a return to the state championship game and winning it.
“We’re drove 3½ hours to prove ourselves,” Jackson told his players afterward on the gnarly field at Martin-Savarese Stadium. “That is a good program with a good coach and staff. But we’ve got a good program with some good coaches too. From this point forward, we’re not answering that question.”
Vigor won despite committing 12 penalties for 119 yards and used Branden Ball’s early blocked punt to set up Anthony Gill’s 5-yard touchdown pass to Zy Wilson that held up into the fourth quarter. Once there, backup quarterback Jhi Brown scored on a 1-yard run with 11:55 to go, then screwed the lid down on the victory with a 54-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-1 with 2:58 remaining to make it 20-3.
“Now we’re gonna work our butt off to play clean and perform like a great team every Friday,” Jackson told his players. “The day that we put together four clean quarters of football, somebody’s in trouble. This team can play with anybody in the state of Alabama. We’ve got to put together four clean quarters of football and we’re gonna keep working until we do that.”
Jackson — who at 16-4 is off to the best start of any coach in Vigor history in his first two years with an .800 winning percentage — watched his team go to 3-0 against teams in higher classifications this season, evidence that the Wolves could challenge for their fifth Blue Map.
They made the Class 5A finals last year, only to struggle in a 25-0 loss to Moody in a monsoon in Birmingham. This time, Jackson wants a dry field to go with what is certainly one of the state’s best defenses in any class, featuring four-star linebacker Isaac McNeil, who is committed to Auburn, and four-star edge rusher Jabarrius “Chicken” Garror, who has committed to Texas and showed Friday night those who face him had best not play chicken with him.
“They’re really good,” Benjamin Russell coach Kirk Johnson said. “There ain’t gonna be too many that’s that fast. They’ve got dudes everywhere.”
Garror had 2½ sacks of Preyear and even when he didn’t get his hands on the celebrated four-star Alabama commitment, who is rated the nation’s No. 7 quarterback in the 2028 class by Rivals, he forced him into the arms of McNeil and others who were more than happy to collect him.
Garror said Vigor’s changing coverages confused Preyear and never let him get into a rhythm.
“We were just checking out of the coverages and showing different defenses,” Garror said. “Going into the week watching film, we knew what we needed to do to win this game. They’ve got a great quarterback, so we knew he was gonna have to do something different to win this game.”
The Wolves held the Wildcats to 0 of 10 on third down, minus 6 yards rushing in the second half and 25 for the game — 225 yards under their average. Preyear was only 5-of-16 passing for 142 yards, 112 of that coming on two passes to Greer — the 72-yarder in the fourth quarter and a scrambling 40-yarder in the first quarter.
“We tried to do a few things that we didn’t have on film just because we’re respecting his arm talent,” Jackson said. “On film, what popped off to us was his decision making. We tried to give him different pre-snap looks and some different post-snap because if he knows what you are doing, it’s hard to stop him. As you can see, he doesn’t need a lot of time to score points.”
Vigor stopped Benjamin Russell on downs in the red zone on consecutive possessions in the second quarter, squeezing Preyear for no gain both times at the Wolves’ 15 and 7. Defensive lineman Cameron Williams made the first stop on fourth-and-3, while Garror and defensive backs Rashad Miles and Kelton Agee made the second stop on fourth-and-1.
“That’s the game,” Johnson said. “When we needed to make the big play right there to flip the momentum, the field position, all that, we just didn’t. Hats off to Vigor, they’re a really good team and a great defense. When it was time for them to make the play, they figured out how to make a play.”
Ball blocked Collin Murphree’s first punt two minutes into the game and three plays later Wilson scored easily on Gill’s 5-yard pass. Gill was 12-of-15 passing for 131 yards and an interception that proved harmless.
“I saw the gap and I felt like I was way bigger and stronger than the person in front of me, so I blew right through him and got to the punter,” Ball said of his first career block.
The Wolves never let the Wildcats piece together consecutive solid gains, holding them to minus 2, zero, zero, 2, minus 4 and zero yards on the snaps following their longest plays.
It all started up front for Vigor.
“I do believe that our front can get after the quarterbacks with the best of them,” Jackson said. “We just held on a little bit longer than they did.”
Jackson said he wanted to play Benjamin Russell because of its quality and because it would prepare his team for the postseason.
“When we took the game, it was for the sheer purpose of winning a championship,” Jackson said. “You have to be able to compete with good programs that are well-coached. We knew we would get that in Benjamin Russell. A lot of people have respect for different types of programs and we just want to be able to show people that we’re trying to build a great product, that we’re a fighter that can play against great programs in the state.”
Murphree’s 38-yard field goal sliced the Wolves’ lead to 6-3 late in the third quarter but Vigor responded with its best drive of the night, moving 80 yards in seven plays for Brown’s 1-yard TD run five seconds into the fourth quarter to make it 14-3. Gill’s 35-yard pass to Wilson after rolling out to his right set up the touchdown.
From that point, the Wolves forced two more punts and Brown’s 54-yard scoring run over the right side of his offensive line on fourth-and-1 put the victory in the vault.
