Saraland quarterback Jamison Roberts fires a pass during Friday night’s Class 5A playoff game at Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa. Roberts finished his high school career by competing 20 of 36 passes for 252 yards and a touchdown but was also picked off twice in the 24-21 loss. (Vasha Hunt/Call News and al.com)
Saraland players celebrate a big play during Friday night’s playoff game at Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa. The Spartans lost in a classic, 24-21. (Vasha Hunt/Call News and al.com)
By JIMMY WIGFIELD
TUSCALOOSA — The joy Saraland felt when linebacker Ricky Strong practically snatched the ball out of Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa quarterback Jordan Shambley’s hands and raced 70 yards with only 1:46 to play to give the Spartans a 21-17 lead curdled into a devastating body blow moments later in one of the most nerve-jangling finishes in Alabama playoff history.
That’s when the Patriots called “Bronco” and threw Saraland right out of the saddle and out of the playoffs Friday night.
Atoning for a mistake in the first quarter that could have cost Hillcrest the game and its season, Jacobi Harris scored on a 10-yard hook-and-lateral with five seconds remaining to give the No. 3-ranked Patriots a 24-21 win over the No. 4 Spartans in the second round of the Class 5A playoffs.
Saraland (10-2) appeared to have locked victory in its vault on Strong’s 70-yard pick-six to give the Spartans a 21-17 lead while Hillcrest was trying to run out the clock.
Instead, Harris’ touchdown ushered Saraland (10-2) out of the playoffs at its earliest juncture since 2019, when it lost in the first round to Park Crossing, and the defeat stopped its bid for a fifth straight appearance in the state championship game.
“It was a punch in the gut,” Saraland coach Jeff Kelly said afterward. “I’ve been playing football or coaching football since I was four and I’ve never seen a game like that. You’ve got your backs against the wall, then you are on the mountaintop and then they come down and put together a drive and score on the hook-and-lateral. You’ve got to tip your hat to them. I wouldn’t have played it any different. This one’s going to take a little bit to digest.”
Spartans quarterback Jamison Roberts closed his brilliant high school career by completing 20 of 36 passes for 252 yards, including a 70-yard TD pass to Deuce Scott in the third quarter. But the Oklahoma commitment, who was under increasing blitz pressure in the second half, threw two interceptions after throwing just two all season, including one at the goal line to Jaylin Bennett in the second quarter.
Roberts, who was 25-3 as a starter, sobbed as Kelly embraced him afterward.
“They were putting pressure on but we managed to manufacture some plays,” Kelly said. “You had two great teams playing and both teams played their hearts out. They managed to have the ball last and made a play.”
He said Roberts performed admirably under duress.
“Jamison doesn’t have to take a back seat to anybody,” Kelly said of Roberts, who had 6,990 career yards and 82 touchdowns passing and came into the game with the highest quarterback rating (153) in the state. “He’s a great young man. He’s a great player, a great competitor. I’m proud of how he grew as a player and he’s got a bright future ahead of him.”
The immediate future for the Patriots (11-0) is a quarterfinal game against Benjamin Russell.
“Bronco” is a play that Hillcrest coach Jamie Mitchell said his team practices once a week on Thursdays and had never called it in a game.
But trailing 21-17 with less than 15 seconds remaining, Mitchell pulled it out of his file and Harris was grateful the ball finished in his hands after he had fumbled it away for a touchback while trying to celebrate an apparent 58-yard touchdown run in the first quarter.
After Strong’s interception return sent Saraland fans into a frenzy, the Patriots drove 80 yards in 13 plays, with quarterback Jordan Shambley scrambling to convert a fourth-and-7 along the way. After spiking the ball to stop the clock, Mitchell chose the hook-and-lateral, with Shambley completing a 15-yard pass to wideout Brenden Williams, who then lateraled to Harris, who scored easily against the Spartans’ stunned defense.
“I really did feel like it was gonna work,” Harris said. “I felt it in the moment.”
Mitchell said the play was the only option he had left.
“The good Lord took care of us and we hit it,” he said. “I knew they weren’t going to let us get behind them and I knew that we didn’t have any timeouts left and we needed some kind of quirky play that we have confidence in. I felt like it was the right time to use it.”
Harris ran for 109 yards on 15 carries and Shambley had 116 on 23 carries for Hillcrest, which had 225 yards rushing.
But it might not have come down to the miraculous finish had Harris not squirmed away from a pile and then fumbled the ball away in celebration just before crossing the goal line on what would have been a 58-yard TD run in the first quarter.
“He drops the ball going to the end zone but nobody needed to say anything to him,” Mitchell said. “He’s going to destroy himself for that. There’s not any player that I’d rather have on this football team. He is our guy, he has been and will continue to be. What a storybook ending.”
After a scoreless first quarter, Jakari Harris scored from a yard out to finish a 60-yard, 10-play drive and give Saraland a 7-0 lead.
On the ensuing possession, Shambley threw a 10-yard TD pass to Anthony Shepherd, who had flared out of the backfield, to tie it 7-7.
In the third quarter, Elijah Miller’s 40-yard field goal gave the Patriots a 10-7 lead but Roberts responded five plays later with the 70-yard scoring pass to Scott, who slipped away from a defender and sprinted down the sidelines to restore the Spartans to a 14-10 lead.
The Patriots took a 17-14 lead with 4:19 left when Shambley found tight end Jamarion Williams, who had only four catches all year, open in middle for a 17-yard TD pass.
Strong said he read Shambley all the way on a fourth-and-3 pass that turned into the 70-yard interception return to give Saraland the 21-17 lead with 1:46 remaining. Strong leaped in front of Shambley at nearly point-blank range and raced the other way as the Spartans’ sideline boiled over onto the field.
“I was just playing my keys,” Strong said. “He’d been throwing the same pass all game. I saw his eyes, so I just jumped it and took it to the crib.”
Moments later, Saraland fell off the crest of victory with the hook-and-lateral.
“We hadn’t seen that,” Strong said. “It was something they probably just drew up and it caught us all off guard.”
Hillcrest’s defense, the best Roberts had seen all year, made some changes at halftime after he had thrown for 105 yards in the first half, which was as much as the Patriots were allowing for an entire game.
About to face Class 5A’s top offense — which was averaging 53 points per game — Mitchell said his defense had an awful practice Wednesday and was unsure of how or even if it could affect Roberts.
Following a long meeting after practice, Mitchell told defensive coordinator Greg Patterson to fix it that night.
“We just weren’t sure what we were doing,” Mitchell said. “Our guys were confused. There’s nobody I trust more than coach Patterson. I told him to go home and figure it out. He called me later that night and he said, ‘Coach, we’re gonna do what we’ve always done.’ We got rid of some stuff that we had added that we weren’t very good at and we played what we’ve played all year long. We’re good enough that if you let those guys make plays, they’re going to make them.”
Defensive end and Alabama commitment Jeremiah Beverly got more active in the second half and had a crucial sack of Roberts in the fourth quarter to force Saraland to turn the ball over on downs.
“We thought we could get more pressure with just our three down linemen and four down linemen and we just couldn’t in the first half,” Mitchell said. “We were able to do that in the second half, especially Jeremiah. I thought there was some individual great effort and great pressure on the quarterback. Jeremiah’s as good as anybody. He’s an explosive, powerful kid. He had a huge impact in the second half, really generating pressure by himself and getting after the quarterback.
“The defense has been our backbone all year long. There’s some vicious guys out there who created turnovers. We have nine seniors on defense and there’s probably nine college football players in those nine seniors that will play at some level.”
Kelly, who came into the game 6-0 in second-round road games, struggled to console his players afterward.
“I wouldn’t change a thing about how you played the football game,” he said. “I can’t say anything to make you feel better except that I love you.”
Mitchell knows how Kelly felt, as the Spartans eliminated Hillcrest from the playoffs in 2022 and 2023.
“There’s not many coaches in this state, if any, that I respect more than Jeff Kelly,” he said. “You know his body of work and the consistency it’s been is nothing short of a miracle. That guy’s just continued to produce great programs and he is a class act. You hate for anybody to lose a game like this. I’ve been on the other side of that and you hate to see a group of kids go home brokenhearted and I mean that in all seriousness. I know what they feel like but I’m so thankful that it’s not in our locker.”
