Mobile Christian’s Jason Todd (2) ran for 177 yards and scored both of the Leopards’ touchdowns in a 21-14 playoff loss at Tallassee Friday night. (Helen Joyce/Call News)
By JIMMY WIGFIELD
TALLASSEE — Mobile Christian was uncertain it would be in the playoffs after finishing the regular season 3-6. In fact, first-year coach Charles Lawson gave anybody on his already depleted roster who didn’t want to stick around an open door to leave.
“We went in with the doubts of being in the playoffs because we didn’t know how the tiebreaker rule would go,” he said. “We had a meeting and told the guys, ‘If you feel like you need to leave now, you can.’ But the ones who stayed here, we’re going to compete. We’re going to be ready to go. They bought in. And we went on a grind for the past two weeks.”
The injury-pocked Leopards did reach the postseason as the fourth and final seed from 4A Region 1 and got a much-needed off week. Then they came to Tallassee Friday night and proved they belonged before losing a 14-0 first-quarter lead and falling to the Tigers 21-14 at J.E. “Hot” O’Brien Stadium.
Junior running back Jason Todd continued to bust defenses just as he has over the last half of the season while perched in the driver’s seat of the Caterpillar tractor also known as Mobile Christian’s offensive line. Todd ran for 177 yards on 33 carries — 125 in the first half — and had both of the Leopards’ touchdowns as they scored on their first two possessions.
Todd scored on a 1-yard run and on a 21-yard pass from Damien Gatson on a flare in the left flats after the Leopards had repeatedly jammed Todd into Tallassee’s tonsils on drives of 73 and 64 yards. In between, Xavier Harris’ interception at Mobile Christian’s 10 stopped a Tigers threat.
“They came out in something that we hadn’t seen them do all year — a two-tight end set and really just punched us in the mouth,” Tallassee coach Lawrence O’Neal said.
O’Neal had already seen what Todd could do, two tight ends or not. After starter P.J. Brown was lost for the season with a broken wrist, Todd ran for an astounding 1,102 yards in five games — 286 against St. Stanislaus, 233 against St. Michael, 178 against Orange Beach, 228 against W.S. Neal and 177 against the Tigers.
But with the Leopards a few inches away from taking a 21-0 lead midway through the second quarter, Todd was violently jolted at the goal line on what would have been a 10-yard TD run and the resulting fumble was recovered in the end zone by Tallassee’s Jaiden Gordon.
“That was game changing for us but it didn’t cost us the game,” Lawson said. “It was just our lack of play after that. But we go up 21 there, that’s tough to come back from. Coach O’Neal had those guys ready. We already knew it was gonna be a dogfight no matter how much we got up on them because they were not gonna lay down for us.”
O’Neal, the son of Hall of Fame and former Reeltown coach Jackie O’Neal, said he didn’t come close to breaking the emergency glass and setting off alarm bells. Instead, he stayed with his game plan to run the football.
“We’ve been down 14-0 in three games this year and our kids are resilient,” he said. “They just fight back. We’ve been down 21-0 before. If it had gone much beyond that, we would have had to change some things that we do. We’ve got a package where we’ll come out and throw the ball a lot. But that ain’t what we really want to do. We want to be able to run the ball.”
The Tigers cut the lead to 14-7 by halftime on Trent Morris’ 60-yard pass to Jordan King, who got open in the middle of the field on a busted coverage for the first of his three touchdowns.
King’s 97-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to open the second half was brought back on a holding penalty but Gordon broke a 63-yard run on the next play and Tallassee tied it 14-14 on King’s 6-yard run from the Wildcat formation. King scored again from 9 yards out with 3:03 left in the third quarter to give the Tigers the 21-14 lead.
Mobile Christian had a chance to tie it early in the fourth quarter after driving to a first-and-10 at Tallassee’s 17 but a low snap lost eight yards and Carter Lewis missed a 45-yard field goal to the left.
The Leopards forced a punt with 4:25 remaining and drove from their 20 to the Tigers’ 42 before Jaden McKenzie intercepted Gatson at Tallassee’s 10 with 25 seconds to go.
Mobile Christian rushed for 143 yards in the first half but only 55 in the second and converted just 1 of 7 third downs as the Tigers put seven defenders in the box and began run blitzing to outnumber the Leopards’ blockers. Meanwhile, Tallassee converted 6 of 10 third downs and had 257 yards on the ground.
“We came out and played strong,” Lawson said. “The O-line was phenomenal, getting blocks and push. Jason Todd did a phenomenal job running the ball. But it caught up with us in the second half, the fatigue thing, going both ways basically the whole team other than Damien. It started to wear on us and kind of caught up with us at the end. And they adjusted to us well.”
Mobile Christian — which also saw Gatson and star offensive lineman Bo Cagle play through injuries — finished 3-7, its worst season in a decade, one year after going 15-0 and winning the Class 3A state championship. The Tigers won their seventh straight game and are 8-3 a year after finishing 1-9.
“It’s been an up-and-down year for us, just being in 4A with the numbers we have,” said Lawson, who started the season with just 28 players. “But those guys have fought the hardest and I’m proud of each and every one of them. I’m glad I’m their coach. We just want to build off what we created this year. The numbers are down but the guys that I’ve got, I will go with them each and every day. If it’s 15 or 16, I’ll make sure they’re conditioned and we’re in shape and we’re just going to keep riding this thing and get some wins next year.”
