GAME 11:  Aliceville 30, St. James 20

St. James faced perhaps its toughest test ever in a playoff game and fought bravely, but just could not overcome a halftime deficit of 20 points as Aliceville, defending 3A state champions, won their sixth consecutive playoff game - a 30-20 downing of the Trojans at Carlisle Field.

St. James managed five first downs on their first two drives of the game, but never threatened to score. Aliceville moved easily on their first drive as well, but a clipping penalty forced them eventually to punt.  On the first play of the second quarter (the second play of the Yellow Jackets' second drive), Aliceville QB Korneas Wilkins hit receiver Randy Spruill for a 49 yard pass play, moving the Jackets out of poor field position. A costly roughing the passing penalty on the ensuing third down kept the drive alive, and two plays later the Jackets capitalized - on a 16 yard pass from Wilkins to Demetrius Curry - and Aliceville had the first score of the game at 7-0 (with the PAT) with 9:32 to go in the half.

St. James drove again, benefiting from several penalties. A late hit out of bounds gave the Trojans the ball on the Jackets 34. Three plays netted a loss of one yard. Then, a bizarre play and sequence of events occurred.  On fourth down, a field goal was to be attempted. The snap was high and kicker Michael Ritch tried to pass for first down. The ball was intercepted and run back by Aliceville defender Nicholas Gipson for an apparent touchdown of 77 yards. However, a flag had been thrown and after much debate, a defensive holding penalty was called on Aliceville, despite the fact the foul hard apparently taken place behind the line of scrimmage. The penalty was not an automatic first down however (as it is in higher level play), and the Trojans still had a fourth down and 2 on the 16.  Unfortunately, confusion was still prevalent on the field and the Trojans failed to execute the fourth down play, turning over the ball.   It took Aliceville only five plays to score; their second touchdown was tallied on a 57 yard dash by the dangerous scampering quarterback Wilkins.  The second extra point attempt was no good, leaving the score at 13-0 with 3:13 to go into the half.

After a deep kickoff and short return, the Trojans converted one first down, but made a crucial mistake just before half. A Lee Murphy pass attempt was read beautifully by defender Randy Spruill, who intercepted at the Trojan 34 and went the distance for the Jackets' third touchdown in less than eight minutes.  After several penalties on the kicking team, a two point conversion was bypassed, and the kick gave Aliceville a 20-0 lead.

St. James fumbled in Aliceville territory late in the half, but Aliceville could not capitalize, turning the ball over on downs - thus the 20-0 halftime lead stayed intact.

The Trojans grabbed the early second half momentum they needed when Speed McDonald intercepted the first Jacket pass attempt of the half and returned it to the Aliceville 30.  Three plays netted only 3 yards, despite an offside penalty. On fourth and 7, Stephan Woodham broke wide open behind the left defense, and was spotted by Murphy who hit him with a 27 yard TD pass.  Ritch's extra point added to the Trojans' first points of the game, 7-20, with 7:58 to go in the third quarter.

St. James attempted an onside kick which Aliceville recovered.  The Jackets drove down to the 32 yard line, where on a second and 13 play a seemingly obvious illegal motion penalty was missed, and Randy Spruill scampered down to the Trojan 9 with a first down despite boisterous protesting.  The drive stalled, but Demetrius Curry came in and kicked a crucial 23 yard field goal to give Aliceville a 23-7 lead.

The Trojans retaliated quickly. On the fourth play of the ensuing drive, Murphy found Matt Grooms with a 50 yard TD pass, similar to the 72 yarder in the Holtville game, and the Trojans were on fire. They attempted a two point conversion to cut the lead to 8, but a run was stopped. Nevertheless, the Trojans had made up 50% of the halftime deficit with the score 23-13 Aliceville with still 20 seconds left in quarter 3.

An immediate 3-and-out had the Trojans sidelines and fans fired up, as did a 15 yard Grooms punt return giving the Trojans a first down on the Jackets 36.  Three plays netted only 1 yard, and a Michael Ritch 52 yard FG attempt came up short - leaving the score at 23-13 Aliceville with 8:48 to go in the game.

Aliceville put the game away on an 80 yard four play drive - highlighted by a Wilkins QB scamper of 23 yards and a 50 yard touchdown by dominating runner Kendall Gibson, giving the Yellow Jackets a seemingly comfortable 30-13 lead with just under 7 minutes to go.

The Trojans used several long passes and two Jackets penalties to put them in the red zone quickly, and Michael Reid dashed the final 7 yards for a Trojan TD with over 4 minutes to go. The conversion made the score 30-20, which would be the eventual final.

Another onside kick attempt was recovered by Aliceville. However, St. James used two timeouts, a Jacket holding penalty, and a quarterback sack out of bounds to get the ball back. On perhaps the most dubious of several penalty plays in this game, Grooms fielded a short low punt at his own 46, dodged tacklers, and darted all the way to the Jacket 19. However, a mysterious clipping penalty was called at the Yellow Jacket 43 yard line, and the Trojans were backed up to their own 42, a serious momentum-crushing call.

Four incomplete passes gave the Jackets the ball back, and they would not relinquish possession as one first down was enough to run out the clock and a nevertheless successful season for the mighty Trojans.

This loss concluded perhaps the second most successful season of Trojan football to date at 9-2.

SIDELINE STATISTICS - GAME ELEVEN

ST. JAMES      RUSHING   34 attempts  128 yards   1 TD  (3.77 yards per carry)

                        19   McMillan    21 / 82             35   Reid              9 / 33  (1 TD)
                        21   Grooms        3 /   8             22   Woodham     1 /   5

                        PASSING     6 completions  19 attempts  1 INT  139 yards  2 TDs  (no sacks of)

                        10   Murphy       6 - 18 - 1      139 yards   2 TDs
                        44   McDonald     0 - 1 - 0          0 yards

                        RECEIVING

                        35   Reid             3 / 67  (1 TD)  22  Woodham       2 / 41  (1 TD)    21   Grooms      1 / 31

                        TOTAL YARDS:  267