SECOND ROUND: Montgomery Academy rolls past Mobile Christian
With the aid of the blocking of Charlie Adams, Montgomery Academy’s Ali Nelson races for yardage in the Eagles’ win over Mobile Christian on Friday. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
The first big play in Friday’s quarterfinal playoff game at McLemore Field was an interception return for a touchdown by Mobile Christian.
All the plays after that belonged to Montgomery Academy.
The Eagles rebounded from that shocking pick six with 49 unanswered points, unleashing a barrage of offensive highlights while shutting down the Leopards with a stifling defense in a 49-14 victory in the Class A Private playoffs on Friday night.
The Eagles unleashed their talented receivers on the Mobile Chrsitian defense with Jarrett Friendly catching six passes for 113 yards and a pair of touchdowns and Braden Gordon pulling in five more for 117 yards and a touchdown.
“Obviously, we’ve had a lot of success running the ball,” Montgomery Academy coach Ethan McBride said. “They really loaded the box. They added extra numbers into the box and if you’re going to do that, then you’re saying you’re fine with one-on-one coverage against Jarrett Friendly so we’re obviously going to take advantage of that.”
The win by Montgomery Academy (12-0) earned the Eagles a rematch with Bayside Academy, the team that ended MA’s 2025 season with a 30-13 defeat of the Eagles in Daphne a year ago.
“We get to play the team that knocked us out last year,” Gordon said. “At their place again. I can’t wait.”
Mobile Christian’s LaDouglas Jones stepped in front of a quick run-pass option read by Reid McBride and returned the interception 35 yards to the end zone on the fifth play of the game, but it soon became evident the Leopards didn’t have the offensive firepower to keep up with the Eagles.
“I believe Coach McBride is one of the smartest defensive minds in the entire state,” Marks said. “He drew up a really good scheme for us. With our experience in the playoffs and our chemistry, we were able to execute it at a high level.”
By halftime, the Leopards had one first down and seven total yards. McBride, meanwhile, threw completions of 13, 23 and 26 yards to Friendly to set up a quarterback keeper for the final three yards to tie the game at 7-7 late in the first quarter.
“We’re the best in the state, that’s kind of how we feel,” Friendly said of the Eagle receivers, “so if you’re just going to guard us with one man, that’s not a winning business model for other teams. I think we take it as a challenge. And we attacked that.
The Eagles’ next possession started with a 36-yard completion to Gordon, an eight-yard run by McBride, a 24-yard completion to Friendly and a 7-yard touchdown lob to Friendly to make it 14-7.
A mishandled kickoff moments later left the Leopards on the 1-yard line and Israel Benard’s next pass found senior William Marks, who jogged the six yards to the end zone for a 21-7 lead.
“I walked up a little to disguise it, then I dropped back into coverage and he threw it right to me,” Marks said. “He threw it to the slant that was running behind me and I was able to drop out and get the pick six.”
Marks caught a 6-yard pass from McBride for the Eagles’ next touchdown and a 28-7 halftime lead. Things didn’t get any better for the Leopards in the second half as Montgomery Academy scored touchdowns on all three third-quarter possessions, including an absurd 48-yard touchdown catch from Gordon, who grabbed the ball away from two Mobile Christian defenders and jogged into the end zone.
“I was getting that one,” Gordon said. “I needed a touchdown. I needed that one.”
Even McBride had trouble finding the right words to describe what he had seen.
“The one where he took it off the kid’s head and ran it in, the play really wasn’t designed to go to him,” the Montgomery Academy coach said, “but when Reid had to escape the pocket and keep his eyes down the field, he saw Braden and liked the matchup. What I appreciate is Reid said I trust my guy, I’m going to put it up there and let him go get it. And to Braden’s credit, he did.”
Mobile Christian had managed just two first downs and 23 total yards to that point, trailing 49-7 as the Eagles emptied the bench.
“We try to take our physicality to the next level,” Friendly said. “That’s what we kind of build our defense off of. We were very physical in the first half. In the second half, we let the little guys get in. They did a great job.”
Reid McBride completed 14 of 18 passes for 285 yards and four touchdowns, while rushing for 48 yards and a touchdown on seven carries.
“I thought Reid really did a great job of extending drives, extending plays to find Jarrett open, Marks several times and Braden,” McBride said. “He did a really good job of staying within himself and really not panicking.”
And the running game, which struggled against a stacked defense early, got untracked late as Ali Nelson finished with 110 yards and a touchdown on 19 carries.
“I love the way that we play team football,” Ethan McBride said. “We complement each other. The D-line complements the linebackers and the linebackers complement the safeties, but we play great team football -- we were able to pin them deep, we made a big interception to score a touchdown there.
“Early on, when we were trying to find our footing, teams are going to do different things against us and our defense was a steadying presence to settle us into the game.”
Which earned the Eagles another shot against the team that ended their season a year ago.
“That’s a great feeling,” Friendly said. “Coach told us late in the game that they were up (in Friday’s win over Cottage Hill). I kind of feel that’s how it’s supposed to be, us going down there. That’s just a great opportunity for us to show what we can do.”
“Bayside is a really good team and it’ll probably be our toughest game of the year,” Marks added. “They’ve got a bunch of really good players, but we’re excited to have another shot at them. It should be a fun game.”
Defensively, Gordon had five tackles, two sacks, two tackles for loss and a quarterback pressure, Will Kitchens had five tackles, Ridgeway Britt had five tackles and Marks had four tackles, one tackles for loss and an interception return for a touchdown.