South Alabama Sports

      DAPHNE — Can a football team be considered great if it committed 18 penalties and still won? When one of the penalties is for tackling too hard, it might not matter. In Mary G. Montgomery’s 41-31 victory over Daphne Friday night, Vikings linebacker Devin Pettway swallowed Jamir Alcius on a pass in the flats, then threw him down like he had just picked up a sack full of poisonous snakes. While Hulk Hogan would have been proud…

        GROVE HILL — Being a charitable sort of fellow, Clarke County’s Jason Massey didn’t make his former pupil, Chan Lowe, and his Leroy players dress out under a couple of umbrellas in the rain before their first game against each other as head coaches. It wouldn’t have made any difference anyway, for there were no obvious advantages Massey could latch onto. In fact, Massey and his Bulldogs were so accommodating that they supplied a dry locker…

    By ARTHUR L. MACK SPANISH FORT — Kendrick Able rushed for 174 yards on 17 carries and a touchdown and J.J. Bush scored on runs of 46 yards and 1 yard as Theodore knocked off No. 9-ranked Class 6A Spanish Fort 28-17 on The Hill Friday night. Crishon Overton completed 10 of 16 passes for 62 yards and added a TD run for the Bobcats (1-1, 1-0 6A Region 1). The Toros (1-1, 0-1) got 124 yards on…

    By JIMMY WIGFIELD GROVE HILL — There was a time in the not-so-distant past when Chan Lowe was asked if he’d like to be his own boss some day and coach against his longtime friend and mentor, Jason Massey. “He’d beat the dog mess out of me,” Lowe said without hesitation. And that was just after Lowe had replicated Massey’s 2022 state championship by winning a Blue Map of his own in 2023 while serving as the Bears’…

          JACKSON — Saraland enjoyed five undeniable advantages in its 17-6 victory over Jackson Friday night in a game that stirred months of preseason hyperbole plus 4,500 fans at Legion Field, including some who stood four deep peering through a chain-link fence behind one end zone until it started raining. No. 1, Saraland is Saraland. The Spartans are what Murphy was in the 1970s, Vigor was in the 1980s and Blount was in the 1990s —…

    By ARTHUR L. MACK MOBILE — Anthony “Tank” Jones scored on a 1-yard run in overtime, then tacked on the winning two-point conversion as St. Paul’s edged UMS-Wright 29-28 at Erwin S. Cooper Stadium Friday night. Hayden Fincher completed 12 of 21 passes for 83 yards and a touchdown, Anthony Frasier rushed 12 times for 78 yards and a 5-yard touchdown and Parker Dennis caught a 31-yard touchdown pass to tie the game and send it into overtime…

          By JIMMY WIGFIELD JACKSON — E.J. Crowell or no E.J. Crowell, Jackson would have found it difficult to beat Saraland after committing four turnovers in the second half Friday night, including three lost fumbles in the fourth quarter. The No. 1-ranked Class 4A Aggies — who scored 69 points the last time they were on the field in the state championship game — self-destructed with the turnovers and 15 penalties for 107 yards while the…

    By JOHN VELLA  MILLRY — Ke’Markys Howard rushed for 141 yards on 12 carries, including a pair of touchdowns, to lead Citronelle to a 35-0 romp over Millry Thursday night at A.D. Britton Stadium. Howard, a senior, scored on runs of 29 and 39 yards as the Class 5A Wildcats opened the season with a decisive victory over the 1A Wildcats. “Ke’Markys is a guy that we can line up all over the field and he’s gonna make…

    By JIMMY WIGFIELD JACKSON — E.J. Crowell went from hitting people in the mouth to squirting water in them Thursday and didn’t even seem angry about it. Jackson’s five-star running back, who is known for his complete repertoire of skills and a penchant for turning defenders into jelly, was suspended for Friday night’s showdown with Saraland at Legion Field for violating the Alabama High School Athletic Association’s amateurism rule. But the preseason All-American and Alabama commitment, while calmly…