Visiting Heritage put an end to Apalachee High School’s playoff hopes Friday night with a 35-0 win at R. Harold Harrison Stadium.
Even with a win this week, the Wildcats would not be able to move into the top four of the Region 8-AAAAA standings.
The Patriots took a 21-0 halftime lead and capitalized on some big plays to wrap up a playoff spot.
“We didn’t do a lot on offense from a consistency basis in the first half,” said AHS coach Shane Davis. “We played pretty well defensively in the first half, but we had three opportunities to get off the field and couldn’t. That led to their 21-0 lead.”
Heritage converted a fake punt on one series and also converted two third and long plays.
“After all three of those, they ended up scoring,” Davis said. “With a team that is good as defensively as good as theirs, you have to get off the field. We didn’t make a play when we had to. We also didn’t do enough offensively to have a chance. A lot of that has to do with Heritage being a good team. They made the plays when they had to. Good teams do that.”
Mercer Bradley put the first points on the board with a 29-yard run with 6:20 left in the first quarter. Chase Alford successfully converted a fake punt on the drive.
AHS had some success early in moving the football behind the running of Monterian Smith, Eric Tanner and Zay Henry.
Heritage would move in front by two scores on a 29-yard pass from Ryan Sutton to Cedrick Davenport.
The Wildcats began moving the football on the ensuing possession, but eventually had to punt.
Sutton then connected with Davenport again on a 42-yard pass to move deep inside AHS territory. The drive was capped by a touchdown by Dominique Parker inside the final minute of the first half. That score helped give Heritage complete momentum going into halftime.
In the second half, Sutton added a six-yard scoring run for Heritage. The final score came on an interception return.
“We did a lot of good things,” said Heritage coach Chad Frazier. “We tackled well, we blocked well and we took care of the football.”
