PREP RECAP: Catholic flag football advances with win over Mobile Christian; ACA, St. James hoops earn wins

Hayden Fitts avoids the rush of Mobile Christian’s Gracie MacAlpine in Catholic’s win on Tuesday in the AHSAA second round. (Tim Gayle)

COMBINED REPORTS

The strategy for Mobile Christian was evident early as the Leopards dropped into coverage and refused to rush Catholic quarterback Hayden Fitts.

Other teams have tried to pressure Fitts, only to have the senior quarterback take off on a scramble or draw in the defense before throwing to a teammate. Mobile Christian, in Tuesday’s second-round playoff matchup, elected to drop into coverage and keep spies on Fitts whenever she started to scramble.

“There’s only one other game where they did that,” Fitts said. “And they knew it was a big mistake.”

The Knights fell behind early, then changed the script and dismantled the Leopards 48-13 to advance to the quarterfinals of the state playoffs with their 17th consecutive win.

Catholic (17-1) will face the winner of Wednesday’s game between St. Michael and McGill-Toolen in the quarterfinals next Tuesday in Mobile.

After falling behind 6-0, the Knights scored on their next three possessions for a 20-6 halftime advantage. After the Leopards scored on the opening possession of the second half, Catholic scored on its next four possessions to end the game midway through the fourth quarter after hitting the 34-point mercy rule.

Early on, however, the Leopards’ strategy paid off by stopping Catholic’s initial possession, then using a fourth-and-goal pass from Sara Francis Dudley to Kai Wright in the back of the end zone for a 6-0 advantage.

 “I think they knew we’d try to take advantage of the long ball and they played everybody back to try and stop that,” Catholic coach Whitney Toole said. “It took us a while to make adjustments, but I’m proud they made the adjustments. We just started off slow. We’ve got to start the next one quick.”

Catholic marched 66 yards in just seven plays to take a 7-6 lead as Fitts took a pitch from Avery Sadler, then threw 9 yards to Frances Ann Rogers for the game-tying points. Fitts took a pitch from Sadler and ran in the conversion to give the Knights the lead. 

Fitts threw a 5-yard touchdown pass to Maggie McNeely, then lobbed a perfect 21-yard pass over the head of Rogers to a sliding Haley Ishman in the corner of the end zone for a 20-6 halftime lead as the Knights adjusted quickly to the Leopards’ defensive strategy.

“I just stay patient in the pocket and wait until my receiver gets open, when they make a move,” Fitts said. “I just hit them right before they make their move.”

Mobile Christian used a pair of big plays by Wright -- and some crafty running behind teammates -- to close out the first half and open the second half with a scoring drive that cut the Catholic lead to 20-13 before Catholic slammed the door on the Leopards’ offense.

“We didn’t (handle it) to start with, but in the second half we kind of knew what to expect and tried to work around it,” Toole said. “We just the focus on controlling what we can and not on what we can’t. We tend to get a little frustrated and moving blocks is one thing we can’t control.”

“We just go with the flow,” Fitts explained, “because sometimes the refs don’t call it so we just have to do our best to work around it, even the illegal blocking.”

Catholic went 66 yards in five plays, using a Fitts’ 10-yard pass to McNeely to built a comfortable cushion, then turned back Mobile Christian with a Ishman interception; a Destini Hartman sack of Dudley for a safety; and a fourth-down pass breakup by McNeely to hold the visitors scoreless the rest of the game.

Fitts completed 15 of 21 passes for 256 yards and six touchdowns, including scoring passes of 31 and 37 yards to Sadler and Ishman, respectively, to make it 42-13 late in the third quarter.

“They started to play us man-to-man a little bit and that always helps when you have receivers like these,” Toole said. “I think it’s also getting a little more comfortable. The nerves were out at the beginning.”

Ishman, who ended the game on the mercy rule with an 8-yard touchdown pass to Rogers with 8:34 remaining, caught three passes for 100 yards and two touchdowns. Defensively, she had three stops, five pass breakups and an interception.

Fitts, who rushed for 61 yards on eight carries, had five defensive stops.

Sadler led the Catholic defense with 10 flag pulls.

GIRLS BASKETBALL

St. James 65, Guntersville 54

Natalie Barton 17 points, five rebounds and six assists as the defending 3A state champions defeated the defending 5A state champions in the Trojans’ home opener on Tuesday night.

Kaden Fair added 16 points and four rebounds, Kaitlin Mitchell had 15 points, 13 rebounds and four assists and Morgan Lilly followed with 10 points, six rebounds and four assists. Jordyn McRae had six points and three steals to go with 10 rebounds.

St. James (2-0) will travel to Vestavia Hills on Thursday.

Alabama Christian 37, BTW Magnet 28

Chelsea Guice had nine points, three assists and 10 steals to lead a balanced attack as all nine ACA players scored in a 37-28 win over BTW Magnet in the season opener on Tuesday night in the ACA gym.

Sam Burgess had 11 rebounds along with four points and three steals as the Eagles held BTW to one field goal in the second half.

John’aiya Wiley led BTW with 12 points, followed by Khylin Briggins with eight.

ACA (1-0) travels to Holtville on Friday.

St. James 73, Thompson 65 (Saturday)

ALABASTER -- The St. James girls basketball team opened the season with a balanced attack that defeated Class 6A Thompson 73-65 on Saturday afternoon in the Thompson gym.

The defending 3A state champions were paced by Kaitlin Mitchell, who had 22 points, four rebounds and three assists and Natalie Barton with 17 points, seven rebounds and seven assists.

Kaden Fair added 12 points and three rebounds, followed by Jordyn McRae with 11 points, three assists and six steals and Morgan Lilly with seven points, four rebounds and three assists.

BOYS BASKETBALL

Alabama Christian 65, BTW Magnet 61

Tyler Faulkner scored 22 points and had four rebounds and four steals to help the Eagles rally from a halftime deficit and defeat BTW Magnet on Tuesday night in the ACA gym.

Akayden Smith added 15 points, followed by AJ Shannon with 11 points, three rebounds and three steals and Levi Summers with nine points and 12 rebounds as ACA rallied from a 26-25 halftime deficit in a closely contested game.

Noah Hollinger led BTW Magnet with 17 points, followed by Anthony Keeton with 10.

ACA (2-0) travels to Holtville on Friday.

Stanhope Elmore 75, Prattville Christian  50

MILLBROOK -- CJ Robinson led four players in double figures with 13 points and eight rebounds as the Panthers dropped their season opener at Stanhope Elmore on Tuesday night.

Ethan Girlie added 11 points, six rebounds and three steals,  Carter Fiacco had 11 points and five rebounds and Cody Chapman added 11 points, four rebounds and four steals.  

PCA (0-1) will travel to play Elmore County on Friday.

In the junior varsity game, the Mustangs defeated PCA 38-33. Milner Tidwell led the Panthers with nine points and five steals.  Tanner Cantrell also had nine points, while Price Foster had 14 rebounds and four blocks.

Alabama Christian 83, LEAD Academy 45 (Monday)

Tyler Faulkner scored 19 points and had eight rebounds, including 13 points in the second half, as the Eagles opened the season with an 83-45 win over LEAD Academy on Monday night.

AJ Shannon added 11 points, while Knox Russell had 11 points, four assists and four steals and Tyson Lambert had eight points.

Jeremiah Williams led LEAD Academy with 16 points, followed by Derrick Bailey with 11.

McNeely had five receptions for 50 yards and a pair of touchdowns, while Sadler had two catches for 46 yards and a touchdown and Rogers had three receptions for 28 yards and two touchdowns. Aria Martinez had three catches for 46 yards.

Dudley completed 17 of 27 passes for 208 yards and two touchdowns with two interceptions. Defensively, she led the Leopards with seven tackles.