Saraland’s Dillon Alfred had the best game of his Spartans career with 10 catches for 171 yards and three touchdowns in Friday night’s 42-17 win over Spanish Fort. “Dillon came out and showed everybody what he can do,” quarterback K.J. Lacey said. “He’s showed glimpses of it before that but he caught fire and didn’t let off at all.” (Todd Stacey/Call News)
From Saraland, Ala.
Spanish Fort surely had the pregame advantage over Saraland, at least visually — its massive inflatable bull, which the players ran through to reach the field just before kickoff, must have been at least three stories tall from horn to hoof and even had smoke billowing from its nose. It occupied half the end zone and nearly blotted out Spartan Stadium’s enormous video scoreboard.
But once the air was let out of it — after all, Spartans receiver Dillon Alfred needed the room to run — it carried over to the Toros themselves, who were flat and inert.
The postmortem showed that Spanish Fort fell victim to an extreme case of LaceyDillonitis. It’s a brutal condition, brought on by the toreadors (K.J. Lacey and Alfred) jabbing the toro until it finally succumbs, bloody lances protruding from it like a pin cushion.
Alfred, the four-star Ole Miss recruit, laid low the Toros with 10 catches for 171 yards and three touchdowns in the No. 1-ranked Spartans’ 42-17 victory Friday night. Alfred caught touchdown passes of 60, 7 and 10 yards from Lacey in the first half on the way to a 28-10 lead at intermission.
It was easily Alfred’s best game at Saraland since he transferred from Gautier (Miss.) as a junior and demonstrated the predicament the remainder of the Spartans’ opponents will have in trying to take away Alfred and/or C.D. Gill — absent some new rule that allows defenses to use 14 players.
Play them man-to-man and the Spartans could force the scoreboard operator to turn on lights that are rarely used. Play them the way the Toros did and usually do — cover 2 with reluctant blitzing — and they’ll eat your guts from the inside out.
That basic approach from Spanish Fort during Lacey’s three years in Saraland has led to 35-24, 49-7 and 42-17 beatings of a program with 16 straight playoff appearances, 12 seasons of 10 or more victories, four Blue Maps and two more runner-up finishes.
“Any of our receivers one-on-one, I believe we can expose the secondary,” Lacey said. “Watching film and figuring out their tendencies, whoever is in the X position was going to have a big game and that was Dillon.”
The X receiver was formerly some guy named Ryan but Alfred, always a physical receiver, showed he has considerable gifts of his own. On the game’s third play, with the safety leaning to the other side of the formation, a slant opened for Alfred, who reached back for a ball Lacey threw slightly behind him — a difficult feat he made look simple — then split two defenders and scored from 60 yards out.
“After he caught that slant pass, I said, ‘He’s on,’” Lacey said. “Dillon came out and showed everybody what he can do. He’s showed glimpses of it before that but he caught fire and didn’t let off at all.”
The Toros were forced to go man-to-man after the Spartans drove 75 yards later in the quarter to a first-and-goal at the 7, whereupon Lacey and Alfred conjured a perfect fade ball for another touchdown.
“Dillon was out there one-on-one and I said, ‘OK, do that if you want to,’” Lacey said.
Lacey completed 16 of 23 passes for 191 yards and the three touchdowns before suffering a slight knee sprain after being sacked in the third quarter. The injury isn’t serious; in fact, Lacey and Saraland coach Jeff Kelly said Lacey could have gone back into the game had it been close.
So far, that’s not something the Spartans have had to worry about. Saraland has built first-half leads of 28-7 over Jackson, 56-0 over Blount, 21-0 over Gulf Shores and 28-10 over Spanish Fort. And after another rout of a solid Toros team that put a broad smile on Kelly’s face, one wonders how many close games Saraland will be in, particularly with the defense and its nine new starters playing better than expected.
That much was made plain after Lacey fumbled at the Spartans’ 16 in the first quarter, giving Spanish Fort a chance to tie it 7-7. But on the first play, noseguard and Auburn commitment Antonio Coleman spat out running back Parker Smith for a 3-yard loss; the Toros moved no farther and were forced into a field goal.
Coleman, who can create mayhem from sideline to sideline, said he and his teammates didn’t want to prove wrong those who felt the defense would be a bystander in a string of high-scoring games.
“It’s about showing each other,” he said.
And showing Kelly, who doesn’t allow his players to take anybody for granted. As he often says, it’s not so much about who Saraland is playing, it’s about how Saraland plays.
“We’re playing real quick and fast and more physical,” Coleman said. “We take practice so serious. Every snap is so relentless and it’s paying off in a great way. Every snap, we’re trying to beat ourselves. Everybody is doing their job. We love it. The chemistry is up. I feel like we’re going to always play with an edge. We want to stay uncomfortable and just focus on one game at a time.”
The Spartans intend on doing that 11 more times this season.
