South Alabama Sports

      SPANISH FORT — Saraland had just scored to take a 49-0 lead over Spanish Fort in the third quarter Friday night and Spartans coach Jeff Kelly had seen enough, although the perfection they seek had not been attained. Ryan Williams had just beaten his defender by 10 yards but it seemed like 10 miles. After he got waved through and hopped into the end zone at the end of the 34-yard touchdown pass from quarterback K.J. Lacey,…

    By JIMMY WIGFIELD SPANISH FORT — Spanish Fort plays its football on The Hill. Saraland plays its version on the top of a mountain. And from the vantage point of the rest of Class 6A, that mountain may be too towering to climb. The No. 1-ranked Spartans slammed the Toros to the ground from the time the first ball went airborne and never let them up for air Friday night, scoring on their first five possessions while the…

  By JIMMY WIGFIELD Antonio Coleman’s dream of playing football for Alabama has come true. Those who must face him on the field just want the chance for peaceful slumber, not nightmares. “If you’re playing center against us, you’re not sleeping super well the night before,” Saraland coach Jeff Kelly said. The Spartans’ 6-foot-2, 265-pound junior nose guard said on social media Monday night he has committed to the Crimson Tide, making the announcement on X, formerly known as Twitter.…

SEMMES — The grizzled Viking painted on the finely manicured midfield grass at Grider Stadium has seen bad nights in his time. People have trampled on his nose and bent his horns askew and his hair has turned snow white waiting for this moment in history. Better check for snow in Hades, or snow on Snow Road, for as was trumpeted by a symphony of Gjallarhorns after Friday night’s 28-7 victory over Foley, Mary G. Montgomery is a contender, a…

Mary G. Montgomery’s Troy Flowers breaks loose for some of his 127 yards rushing in Friday night’s 28-7 win over Foley in Semmes. (Helen Joyce/Call News)   By JIMMY WIGFIELD SEMMES — Friday night marked the first time two ranked teams ever met at Grider Stadium and if what Mary G. Montgomery did to Foley is any indication, other teams in the top 10 of Class 7A may want to avoid Semmes. The No. 8 Vikings got the fast start…

By JIMMY WIGFIELD SEMMES — Mary G. Montgomery took control early, forced four turnovers and fed Troy Flowers for 127 yards on 16 carries as the No. 8 Vikings throttled No. 9 Foley 28-7 Friday night. In the first game between ranked teams at Grider Stadium, the Vikings (3-0, 1-0 7A Region 1) took a 14-0 first-quarter lead on Jared Hollins’ touchdown passes of 35 yards to tight end Kaden Harrell and 30 yards to receiver James Bolton. After that,…

TROY — Revenge hasn’t come often, if at all, in Mary G. Montgomery’s football history, and you can’t call what has happened so far this season a revenge tour. But the Vikings have already reversed two losses from last year, when coach Zach Golson began writing a new history for the program. Solid victories over Williamson (41-2) and Charles Henderson (19-7) have marked the first few steps into 2023 and while those are Class 5A victims, they represent reasons for…

  By JIMMY WIGFIELD TROY — So many yellow penalty flags littered the field Thursday night that it was hard to tell if the players were cramping or tripping over them. Neither No. 9-ranked Class 7A Mary G. Montgomery nor No. 2-ranked 5A Charles Henderson could develop a rhythm while slogging through the pile of dirty laundry but the Vikings nevertheless controlled the game nearly from the start and never trailed in a 19-7 victory over the Trojans at Veterans…

SARALAND — Rarely challenged last year on the way to the state championship, Saraland found itself embroiled in a genuine fight for survival Friday night against Lipscomb Academy. It was protracted combat, given all the ESPN commercials and heat timeouts, the only pauses in an otherwise honorable effort to bend each other’s faces into a vat of hot tar. This was expected. The esteemed and nationally ranked Mustangs had won 21 straight games and two straight Tennessee state championships before…

    By JIMMY WIGFIELD SARALAND — It was so hot this week that one Saraland assistant coach saw the glue in the soles of his shoes melt at practice. The Spartans’ souls were similarly laid bare once ESPN’s cameras came on Friday night for the nationally televised game against Lipscomb Academy. One wondered if half the team was going to get hauled to the infirmary. “Everybody was hurting,” said All-American receiver Ryan Williams, who was repeatedly denied the deep…