DALEVILLE SUN-COURIER Wednesday, October 26, 2016
Page 5
SPORTS
DALEVILLE HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL
Warhawks lose close game against Opp
By Mariah Self
[email protected]
The Daleville football
team played in what turned
out to be the Class 3A, Region
2 championship game Friday,
Oct. 21 against the Opp Bobcats and took a 32-29 loss.
Daleville football coach
Josh Parrish said he knew the
game would be a challenge,
but he also believed in the
players’ ability to compete
against a good team like Opp.
“It’s always good to coach
resilient (players who) aren’t
going to quit,” he said. “Never
at one point during the ball
game did (we think) it was
going to get out of hand or
anything like that. We’d keep
answering as the game progressed. It just really came
down to who’s going to make
a mistake. Were we going to
make a mistake, or was Opp? I
knew it was going to be a close
game. Even when it got 20-7, I
knew it was still going to be a
close game.”
A Bobcat kickoff to the
Warhawks started the game,
but neither of the teams’ first
possessions put points on the
scoreboard.
The Warhawks were first
to score when Kainan Pouncy
rushed a yard into the end
zone.
The extra point by Christopher Perkins was good, and
Photo by Laura Fezie
Ryan Warren (2) runs 47 yards to take it to the house against
Opp Friday night.
Daleville started out strong at
7-0 with 6:20 in the first quarter.
With just 1:24 left in the
first quarter, the Bobcats threw
a 22-yard touchdown pass.
Opp attempted a twopoint conversion and was successful. The Bobcats jumped
into the lead at 8-7.
On an untimed down for
the Warhawks at the end of
the first quarter, an interception was caught by Opp and
returned 51 yards for a touchdown.
The two-point conversion was unsuccessful, and the
score moved up to 14-7.
The Bobcats scored again
at the 7:47 mark in the second
quarter.
A 23-yard rush got Opp a
touchdown, but the two-point
conversion went nowhere.
The Bobcats’ score then
jumped the margin to 20-7.
Daleville took advantage
of its next possession, and
Pouncy rushed the final 3
yards of the drive for a touchdown.
With 5:33 left in the first
half, an extra point by Perkins
bumped the score to 20-14.
The Bobcats were the
first to score in the second half
when they rushed 18 yards for
a touchdown.
Opp went for a two-point
conversion, but fell short.
The score was 26-14 at
the 6:02 mark in the third
quarter.
Shortly after, Daleville
scored when Ryan Warren ran
47 yards for a touchdown.
Parrish said the defense
really gave the Warhawks the
opportunity to regain a close
score.
“That was the whole
thing talking to the defense,”
he said. “(We said), ‘Just give
us a stop. We’re going to score
and get this thing into winning
range.’ The defense buckled
down when they had to there
toward the end of the game,
and the offense responded.
The biggest thing is it wasn’t
so much us getting beat as us
just running out of time.”
A good extra point by
Warhawk
Stats
DHS
First downs
14
Rushes/Yards
45/301
Passing Yards
0
Comp-Att-Int
0-6-2
Total Ofense
301
Fumbles lost
1/0
Penalties/Yards 3/15
Punts/Avg.
3/56.6
Perkins brought the score to
26-21.
Opp answered by running 69 yards for a touchdown
with 3:56 left in the third quarter.
The two-point conversion was again no good, and
the score moved to a 32-21
Bobcats’ lead.
It wasn’t until the 5:40
in the final quarter that the
scoreboard changed again.
Warren rushed 16 yards
for a touchdown, and Daleville
succeeded at a two-point conversion.
The score was then a
close 32-29, where it stayed to
the end of the game.
Had there been a little
more time on the scoreboard,
Parrish believed the team
OHS
6
37/151
60
5-9-0
211
1/0
5/41
6/46
could have scored again.
“I felt like we had them
worn down,” he said, “If we
had a little bit more time,
which you don’t, but if we had
a little bit more time I felt like
we could have put it in the end
zone again.”
The Warhawks will play
the Cottonwood Bears on the
road Thursday, Oct. 27 at 7
p.m.
Parrish said the team will
continue to learn from the
Opp game and keep its eye on
the prize, which is winning a
state championship.
“We’ll take our hit (and)
learn from it,” he said. “It
doesn’t have any implication
on what our end goal is, and
that’s to win a state championship.”
Daleville to wrap up regular season on road against Cottonwood
By Casey Strickland
[email protected]
Daleville’s football team
is looking at Thursday’s regular-season finale against Cottonwood to rebound from last
week’s loss and prepare for the
postseason.
“That’s exactly what we’re
going to use it for,” DHS football coach Josh Parrish said.
“We’re going to…start working
on Cottonwood for this week
and build a little bit of momentum going into the playoffs. I
think this will be a good week
for us to try to get back on
track.”
The Bears, who will enter
the game with a 2-7 overall
record, looked similar to the
Warhawks in some ways when
Parrish watched them on film.
“They actually run a lot
of the same offense we run,
except for being in two slots,”
he said. “They’re in an I backfield so they’ll run the veer and
then they run the toss out wide.
They will get in some shotgun
sometimes. Defensively, they
like to be in a four-man front.
(It’s) stuff we’ve seen all year.”
Though Cottonwood has
averaged 17.6 points per game
this season, it has some weapons on offense.
“The quarterback is a
smart football player,” Parrish
said. “He’s quick. Their tailback is a good football player
as well. It will be a good challenge for us to work on our
tackling.”
The Bears’ offense is
familiar to Daleville’s defense,
which Parrish said means
both teams should be ready
for each other.
“I think our guys will be
in the right position with the
veer stuff, because they see
it every single day,” he said.
“That also says they probably
will be in pretty good position,
too, against us because they
see it every day.”
The Cottonwood defense,
which has allowed 30.4 points
a game, also has some standouts.
“(They have) a couple of
linebackers who flow to the
football (really) well,” Parrish
said. “They play downhill well
and like to hit you.”
The Cottonwood game is
the final one for the Warhawks
before the playoffs, and Parrish urged them to remember their goals are still intact
despite the setback against
Opp last week.
“The message I’m going
to have for them…is that really
doesn’t have any implication
on our end goal,” he said. “We
Region
Standings
Class 3A, Region 2
standings
Opp
Daleville
Wicksburg
Straughn
Providence
Slocomb
Geneva
Houston Aca.
Overall
8-1
7-2
6-3
4-4
5-5
3-6
3-6
1-9
Region
7-0
6-1
4-3
3-4
3-4
3-4
2-5
0-7
didn’t make the plays when
we needed to make them. We
had some unforced errors that
ended up costing us. We’ve got
to get back to work. That has
nothing to do with our end
goal, which is to win a state
championship. We might see
them again and we might not.”
The move to a Thursday
game is something the coach
said the Daleville players are
likely to be excited about.
“With high school (players), a change in the weather
or a change in anything gets
them excited,” Parrish said. “I
think they’ll be excited playing
a day early and having a Friday
off. I think a lot of them are
really excited about that.”
The game will kick off
at 7 p.m. Oct. 27, and Parrish
believes the Warhawks will be
ready for the road test.
“There’s really not much
we haven’t prepared for,” he
said. “We’re just going to go
into it again like we have been,
just getting ourselves better.
Hopefully (we will) get out of
it with a win and have us some
momentum going into Bayside
week one (of the playoffs).”
Warhawks:
Week 10
Who: Daleville Warhawks at Cottonwood Bears
When: Thursday, 7 p.m.
Where: Hicks Stadium, Cottonwood
Series History: Daleville trails the all-time series 105, but won the last meeting 17-14 in overtime in 1997,
according to the Alabama High School Football Historical
Society.