It was the tale of two halves on Friday when Apalachee High School avoided the trap game at Madison County High School and ultimately turned it into a blowout.
The Wildcats entered halftime with a 20-14 deficit before routing the Red Raiders with seven touchdowns in the second half for 63-20 Region 8-AAAA victory.
“You come into a game as the heavy favorite, you expect to win and your down by six at half-time,” said Apalachee head coach Shane Davis. “So it was very disappointing. Everybody was down and there wasn’t a whole lot of talking going on and the kids were really silent and disappointed.”
Apalachee (4-1) received the ball at the beginning of the second half and returned it to its own 32 yard line. Senior Alex Camp then raced 68-yards for a touchdown on the first play from scrimmage of the half, giving the Wildcats a 21-20 lead.
“Our linemen were pretty mad,” Camp said. “When they got on their guys it was over and I was in the end zone before I even knew it.”
AHS caught the Red Raiders off guard on the ensuing kickoff when it recovered a surprise onside kick, and then proceeded in completing a nine-play, 49-yard drive that was capped off by a 1-yard touchdown run by Camp.
“We made a couple of adjustments and got back in the game,” Davis said. “Alex made a great run and then we got the onside kick and scored again, so it’s amazing what confidence will do to you.”
The Wildcats had no problems moving the ball on the Madison County defense in the second half and also had no issues stopping the Red Raider offense which — in the first half — outscored Apalachee with three touchdowns.
Stan Maxwell was one of Madison County’s biggest weapons throughout the course of the game. Maxwell would continuously make big plays that would put the Red Raiders in favorable positions to score.
Maxwell caught a 36-yard pass from Alex Jordan which then led to the quarterback connecting with senior wide out Marcus Johnson for the game’s first touchdown.
Jordan threw his second touchdown of the game to Kendrick Curry from four yards out, putting Madison County ahead 12-0 with 1:26 remaining in the first quarter.
“In the first half we came out kinda sluggish and slow, we thought we had it in the bag because it was a team that hadn’t won a lot of games,” Camp said. “With teams like that, we just gotta keep our mindset and stay focused and keep rolling.”
Camp finished the game with 202 yards rushing on 14 carries and three touchdowns, doing most of his work in the second half after some adjustments.
“We came back out knowing that we had it,” Camp said. “We had to fix a lot of things on the line and we got them fixed pretty good because every run was 10 to 12 yards.”
Camp’s two counterparts at wing-back, sophomore Zay Henry and freshman Stanley Williams, also had big games on the ground. Williams rushed for 127 yards and two touchdowns and Henry finished the game with 93 yards and one touchdown.
“Credit goes to the offensive line,” Williams said. “They just came out here and kept working hard, and once the offensive line got their blocks, we just kept running.”
Williams scored his first touchdown in the second quarter going 26-yards to put the Wildcats on the board for the first time of the night. He also scored a 3-yard touchdown that came right after an interception by the AHS defense.
The Wildcat defense not only shutout the Madison County attack in the second half, but also intercepted two passes — one each from Johnny Thompson and Will Thompson. Both resulted in Apalachee touchdowns.
Maxwell went 56-yards on one pass play, before fellow senior Cedrick Bush took a handoff from Jordan for 12-yards into the end zone. The Red Raiders converted a two-point conversion and pulled ahead 20-7 over the Wildcats with 5:06 remaining in the first half.
Apalachee responded with a nine-play, 89-yard drive that was ended with a 7-yard touchdown run by Wildcat quarterback Clint Ashe with 51 seconds left on the clock before halftime.
“They had all the momentum in the first half and I thought our kids did an awesome job of hanging on and keeping us in a good position to come back in the second half,” Davis said.
Apalachee’s backups got a chance to shine at the end of the game, and simply continued to move the ball on the Madison County defense. Kendall Conover scored a two yard touchdown with 10:00 left in the game, putting the Wildcats up 56-20.
A 1-yard quarterback sneak by backup quarterback Drew Hixson with 3:21 remaining in the contest closed out the offensive explosion for the night as AHS wrapped up another 8-AAAA win.
