After a hard reboot, Saraland awakens with 59-9 romp over Theodore

 

 

 

 

By JIMMY WIGFIELD

SARALAND — Around Saraland, a loss can feel like a funeral, especially one at home and especially when the Spartans are ranked No. 1 in the state, so the Spartans had some trepidation when they came to practice on Monday.

There, three days after Gulf Shores ended Saraland’s 41-game home winning streak with a 34-24 victory, the players found coach Jeff Kelly in no mood to celebrate his 47^th birthday by blowing out candles. But nor did they find him backing up a hearse to the fieldhouse. It was Labor Day, so it was time to get to work, and so they did.

The blowing out of candles — and a solid Theodore team that has one of the state’s most physical running backs — came after a week in which Kelly said his team underwent a hard reboot.

“They were embarrassed and humbled,” Kelly said. “Our players worked hard this week and really were looking forward to another opportunity to get out here and just right some wrongs.”

The corrections were sure and rapid.

Jamison Roberts was 10-of-11 passing for 217 yards and two touchdowns — including a 59-yarder to Larry Pettway on the first play from scrimmage — and the No. 3-ranked Class 5A Spartans went on to clobber Theodore 59-9 Friday night.

It was the Bobcats’ second-worst defeat in program history, surpassed only by a 56-0 loss to Murphy in 1963.

“There’s not much I can say,” Theodore coach Randy Larson said. His succinct diagnosis: “They outcoached us and outplayed us.”

Roberts — whose only incompletion came on a dropped pass and who has just two interceptions in the last 15 games — also threw a 30-yard TD pass to Sye Byrd and scored on a 9-yard run, Ayiden Pugh scored on runs of 21 and 60 yards, Jakari Harris scored from 10 yards out and Keith Turner turned a deflected pass into a 69-yard pick-six for Saraland (2-1, 1-1 5A Region 1), which had also seen 30-game regular-season and 25-game region winning streaks tossed in the trash with the loss to the Dolphins.

“We let down the past teams that came through here with the win streak and all those types of things,” said Roberts, who led the Spartans to five first downs on their first seven plays in a harbinger of what was to come. Saraland led 21-0 at the end of the first quarter and 45-3 at halftime. The second half was played with a running clock, including a six-minute fourth quarter.

Kelly’s determination to change his team’s attitude started even before the clock had run out on the loss to Gulf Shores, which was only the second time in 16 years he had lost a region opener.

“We just didn’t play physical ball and that’s not who we want to be,” he said. “Our kids really had a commitment to try to play more physical all across the board. That was really our challenge all week. … When you get beat, you’ve got to own it. You’ve got to own your mistakes and you’ve got to look yourself in the mirror and see how can I come out and do better.”

Roberts took the loss and the challenge personally, channeling former Florida quarterback Tim Tebow’s famous 2008 “Promise Speech” by posting it on his Facebook page. After a 31-30 loss to Ole Miss that season, Tebow apologized to Gators fans and promised he would spill his guts to prevent losing another game that season.

Florida went on to win the national championship that year over Oklahoma, which ironically is where Roberts has committed to play. Roberts’ mission is a state championship.

“I was trying to really embody that mentality,” Roberts said. “I’m gonna do my best to be a better leader, push the team to do their best, and it definitely showed tonight. We’ve gotten more physical this week but we’ve still got work to do. I feel like the guys are making really good strides on trying to be that team and just knowing that we can’t live off the standards and the expectations and what all the past teams have done. This is our own team.”

Roberts admitted in the preseason he had to be a more vocal leader and is making good on that vow.

“I will say this week, it was emphasis, emphasis, emphasis and if people don’t get it, I’m going to drill into their head,” he said. “This is not the time to play. We’ve got a mission.”

Up until Friday night, the approach to the mission was much more passive.

“It definitely felt like we were on autopilot,” Roberts said.

Roberts flipped off the autopilot switch right away Friday night when he scanned the Bobcats’ defense before the first snap and saw no safety in the middle of the field. What followed was a 59-yard rainbow to Pettway, who had averaged only 59 yards receiving in the first two games but beat defensive back Stedman Wiley to the inside on a post pattern.

The touchdown bomb — “We executed it to perfection,” Roberts said — brought some relief to a passing game that has struggled with no deep threat this season. Until then, Roberts’ longest completion had been 30 yards.

“I know I can win in man coverage,” Pettway said. “I already knew when my coach called the play. I knew I was going to win when I saw man coverage.”

Pettway also heard Kelly’s challenge on Monday.

“All coach kept telling us was we need to be better and play stronger and we just went in with a revenge mentality and came out and did what we did,” he said.

The Spartans’ defense also played well, keeping Theodore star running back Kendrick Able out of the end zone, although he ran for 134 yards on 25 carries, and getting a touchdown on Turner’s 69-yard pick six off a pass that deflected off James Davis’ hands.

“It’s crazy because I told my coach, ‘I see them trying to run that out route that we scouted on film’ and they came right to it,” Turner said. “I came down and shed the block. Of course, he didn’t catch the ball, so I had to go take me one to the crib.”

Just before that, with a 28-0 lead, Kelly had fumed about the Bobcats putting together a drive to Saraland’s 39 and he got the response he wanted.

“We’ve got to learn to put the hammer down!” he proclaimed just before Harris recovered Able’s fumble and the Spartans quickly scored twice on Roberts’ 30-yard pass to an open Byrd — Saraland’s cheerleaders were the closest to him — and Turner’s interception return for a 35-0 lead.

The Bobcats (2-2, 1-1) got a 21-yard field goal from Bryan Rivas and a 2-yard TD run from C.B. James in the second half, which was played with a running clock and featured a six-minute fourth quarter. The Spartans scored 59 points despite the shortened game in which they had the ball for only 15:32.

Turner warned that Saraland’s future opponents will face a wrathful, aroused team.

“Losing that 41-game win streak meant something, so we had to come back out and let all our anger out on our next opponent,” Turner said. “It’s gonna keep going.”