PREP PRESEASON: ACA, Autauga Academy work out kinks in final scrimmage
Bryson Kyle runs around the right end in Autauga Academy’s scrimmage against Alabama Christian on Friday. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
With just a week remaining before the start of the 2025 season, Alabama Christian’s jamboree performance was not what ACA coach Michael Summers wanted to see.
“We’ve got a long way to go,” Summers said. “I knew that coming in. I’ve seen we’ve got things we need to get better at in practice. This team works hard, they practice hard, but we’re a young football team and we did a lot of things a young football team does. We’ll learn and hopefully get better.”
After a scoreless first quarter, Autauga Academy scored twice in the final period to defeat the Eagles 14-7 in Friday’s jamboree at Alabama Christian Academy. After the two-quarter varsity jamboree, the two teams played a junior varsity jamboree for one quarter and the Generals’ junior varsity duplicated the varsity performance with an 8-6 victory.
“I felt like we’re a little out of shape, but that comes with numbers, not having that depth,” Autauga Academy coach Jeremy Carter said. “I was proud of our guys, the way they played, the way they fought with less numbers. We didn’t swap anybody in or out and they did so they had a lot more depth. I was proud of their effort.”
The first quarter went as expected between the Class 1A Generals and the 3A Eagles. Alabama Christian came out with seven passes on its first eight plays but eventually bogged down. Still, the Eagles seemed to have an advantage on an Autauga team that managed just one first down in the first quarter.
“At times we were able to generate some stuff passing wise, just not consistently,” Summers said.
In the second quarter, the Generals took control with touchdown receptions of 12 and 76 yards by Kewilliam Cleveland. The Autauga receiver snatched the ball away from ACA defensive back Bryson Dabney for the game’s first points, then broke a 7-7 tie with 2:30 remaining in the contest when an uncovered Cleveland pulled in a pass at midfield and sprinted untouched to the end zone.
“We blew a coverage,” Summers said. “We didn’t look at a whole lot of film on them, but what we had seen was they were going to throw the ball with the first kid (quarterback Logan Dunaway). I thought we pressured him well and early on we covered pretty well, but we blew a coverage that was almost like we didn’t see him line up. But we play a game so we can make those kinds of mistakes and learn from them.”
Cleveland also had a pair of tackles from his safety position but those were his only catches of the jamboree.
“They busted the coverage,” Carter said. “The safety never rolled over. He’s just running a ‘go’ route and the corner sat and the safety never came over.
“But he’s a big-time player. Colleges are going to be all over him with his size. He works hard, he’s in the weight room, he understands, he watches film, he gets after it and he’s one of our leaders on defense as a safety.”
ACA’s Teilan Long also made the most of his only catch, grabbing a fourth-down pass from Christian Snipes and turning upfield to complete a 50-yard play with 4:05 left to tie the game at 7-7.
Ethan Dabney led the ACA receivers with 27 yards on three receptions. Bryson Dabney had 15 yards on three catches and Ladarrius Walters had 13 yards on two receptions. Walters led the Eagles’ rushing attack with 6 yards on four carries as ACA was held to minus 3 yards on nine carries.
Bryson Kyle accounted for 43 of the Generals’ 63 rushing yards on six carries.
Snipes completed 9 of 17 passes for 105 yards and a touchdown, while Autauga starter Dunaway completed 5 of 6 passes for 40 yards.
ACA opens the 2025 season on the road in Auburn against Lee-Scott Academy on Friday before returning home to play host to Goshen on Aug. 29. Autauga opens the season on Aug. 29 at home against Thorsby.