CCC BATTLE: Alabama Christian earns key win over St. James in region play
ACA’S Micah Merritt scrambles for a long run in the Eagles’ win over St. James on Friday. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
A brisk, gusting wind blew into Carlisle Field just before kickoff in Friday’s Alabama Christian-St. James football game, part of an advancing cold front that would change the game plan for the Class A Private Region 2 matchup.
The rain held off but the howling wind changed the strategy for both teams.
“The wind became a factor as soon as we got into warmups,” ACA coach J.L. Dockins said. “How we won the coin toss, we got to actually choose field position with the wind compared to taking the ball or not. We wanted to make sure we had the wind at our back in the fourth quarter.
“We said, ‘hey, let’s lean on a young offensive line with a senior running back that’s ready to run the football and let’s get downhill.’”
The senior running back, Micah Merritt, rushed for 224 yards and five touchdowns as the Eagles ran past St. James 35-7.
“That’s exactly what you need in a game like this,” Dockins said. “You need to be able to run the football when the wind is such a factor in the passing game.”
Merritt lined up in Wildcat formation and ran the ball 11 times for 61 yards, but he probably was more dangerous in standard formation, running the ball 21 times for 163 yards. He scored the first two times in the second quarter in Wildcat formation, then wore down the Trojan defenders with three fourth-quarter touchdowns in standard formation.
“I feel like we prevailed,” Merritt said. “Yeah, the weather conditions slowed us down a little bit but we came out focused and executed and did it together as a team. The offensive line was doing a great job, the receivers were doing a great job blocking and opening holes for me and I’m grateful for that.”
Once the Eagles got the lead, the Trojans were clearly at a disadvantage. In the third quarter, ACA punted once into the wind for zero yards, but the Trojans couldn’t take advantage of field position with the wind at their backs.
In the fourth quarter, with St. James trying to move the ball against the wind, the Trojan punts covered 11 and 7 yards.
“You try to get as much as you can get when you’ve got the wind behind you,” St. James coach Hayden Stockton said. “And you just try to hold on when the wind’s in your face because there’s not much you can do. Try to play as much field position as you can.”
Merritt ran into the line on a fourth-down play, then bounced outside on a 13-yard run to the end zone for the game’s first points.
“I ran into a wall, then I saw the hole outside,” Merritt said. “I immediately bounced out and used my speed to get to the end zone.”
Bryson Dabney’s interception of a Michael Hassell pass a minute later set up the Eagles on the St. James 38 carried on five of the eight plays, including a 9-yard run to the end zone out of Wildcat. The Trojans would answer late in the half on Hassell’s 16-yard touchdown pass to Jordan Williams to make it 14-7, but the Trojans had trouble battling both the wind and the Eagles.
“We lost two linemen (to injury) in the first quarter,” Stockton said. “It limits us because we had a ‘big’ package that we had that we would put in for their ‘big’ package (with Merritt in Wildcat), but we couldn’t run it because we’re out of guys. It kind of limited us to a three-man front, which plays in their favor after a while.”
Merritt had 109 yards and a touchdown on six carries in the third quarter as the Eagles moved the ball against the wind by feeding the senior the ball. Alabama Christian did not attempt a pass in the second half.
Alabama Christian, which opened the season by losing three of its first four games, has now won five in a row behind a defense that held the Trojans to 38 total yards and two first downs in the second half.
“It’s improving every day,” Dockins said. “It’s a young group but we’ve got some great kids in that locker room, great guys on the coaching staff. (Defensive coordinator) Coach ‘Epp’ (Weston Epperson) is going to have a great plan and put our guys in position to make plays. The game of football is going to come down to blocking and tackling. And when the wind becomes a factor, block and tackle better than they do. That’s what we set out to do.”
ACA (6-3) travels to Troy to play Pike Liberal Arts on Friday before facing a first-round opponent in the playoffs in early November.
“It’s been exhilarating,” Merritt said of the five-game winning streak. “I feel like we’re starting to play our best football. We’re starting to execute on all the plays and making less and less mistakes and less turnovers. We’ve still got things to fix but I feel like we’re going to make the playoffs and we’ll be just fine.”
St. James (3-6) will take a week off before closing the regular season with a home game against Sylacauga, then traveling for the first round of the playoffs.
“We’ll practice some next week, but we’ll take most of the pads and the physicality off,” Stockton said. “Try to mend some of our guys and get them back before we play Sylacauga. If they’re still beat up but close to getting back, then we’ll pull them and keep them from Sylacauga and just get ready for the playoffs.”