THURSDAY PREPS: JAG earns playoff spot with win over Dothan; MA wins Super regional volleyball tourney

JAG running back Charles Knight races for the end zone for the Jaguars’ first touchdown of the game in a 22-17 win over Dothan at Cramton Bowl on Thursday. (Tim Gayle)

COMBINED REPORTS

FOOTBALL

JAG 22, Dothan 17

The Jaguars scored twice in the fourth quarter to take a double-digit lead but had to hold on late to earn an important win in Class 6A, Region 2 play that earned a spot on the new bracket of the playoffs in the AHSAA’s biggest classification.

JAG led 6-3 in the first half on a 5-yard run for a score by Charles Knight early in the second quarter.

Dothan got a field goal from Johnathan Castillo followed by a touchdown pass from Sirlathian Meadows to Daniel George for a 10-6 lead midway through the third period.

The Jaguars took the lead early in the fourth on a 33-yard scamper by Christian Williams. They followed with another score with 5:22 left in the by Timothy Myles in what was his only carry of the game.

The Wolves pulled within five points on a drive that took nearly four minutes with two big fourth-down conversions with Meadows scoring his second touchdown on a 6-yard run with 56 seconds left.

The Wolves converted what was the second onside kick of the game to give them another shot but the final drive stalled at the JAG 16-yard line on an incompletion on fourth down.

Williams led the JAG offense with 135 yards on 20 carries. Dothan had four different rushers combine for 143 yards with Meadows leading the way with 99.

JAG (2-7, 2-5) earned the sixth and  final seed in the region  in what is now a 12-team field in Class 6A. It is the first playoff bid in the school’s short three-year exsistence.

The Jaguars close out the regular season against Greenville next Thursday.

Dothan (2-7, 1-6) closes out the season against Crestview, Fla.

Montgomery Academy’s Rehmat Sidhu with a save shot in the Eagles’ win over PCA at the Multiplex at Cramton Bowl. (Tim Gayle)

VOLLEYBALL

SUPER REGIONAL - Montgomery Academy wins Super Regional over PCA

A super regional championship match may not seem like a big deal to volleyball teams that clinched a berth in the state tournament a day earlier.

For Montgomery Academy, however, it’s been a good gauge ever since the format was adopted in 2012. Seven times in the previous 14 years, the Eagles won the South Super Regional. Six of the seven teams reached the finals, winning a state championship five times.On Thursday, the Eagles took aim at another state title, winning the South Super Regional with a sweep of Prattville Christian, winning 25-20, 25-18 and 25-13 in the Multiplex at Cramton Bowl.

“It means a lot because we have such a strong culture,” Montgomery Academy senior Rehmat Sidhu said, “and the last two years we’ve been kicked out of the super regional (with second-round losses). This year, with the classification change, we knew we had the advantage and we were like, we’re going to go and take it all.”

It didn’t come without a fight. Prattville Christian, battered and bruised by the Eagles in last week’s Class A Private Area 4 Tournament, came with a renewed determination and battled Montgomery Academy evenly through the first two sets before finally collapsing in the third.

“I think part of that is we’ve seen them a few times this season so we kind of know,” PCA coach Kaylon Cantrell said. “But there are some things that we mentioned -- this is there, look for these things -- and I thought the girls did a good job of following through with that. I was proud of them for that.

“They made some adjustments, for sure. And in the first set, we did a good job of controlling the unforced errors. The second set we didn’t do quite as good and the third set we struggled. It’s hard being down 0-2 against a team that is that good.”

The Panthers seemed to find every hole in the Montgomery Academy defense in the first set before the Eagles scored the last three points to secure the set. In the second set, PCA jumped out to a four-point lead before MA rallied to tie the game as both teams battled fiercely for every point.

“The main thing, and we talked about this with the girls, is everybody wants to beat MA,” Montgomery Academy coach Jada Coleman said. “We cannot expect to come out to a game -- it doesn’t matter how many times we’ve played them and how many times we’ve beaten them -- and expect them to lay down. They’re going to show up, they’re going to play their best volleyball, they’re going to swing big, they’re going to pass well and that’s exactly what PCA did.

“Kudos to Kaylon, she’s a great coach and I’m sure she had scouted us really well. On the flip side of that our girls, after they had scored a few and found those holes, said it’s not happening any more. We just made a great adjustment defensively and also on our blocks. We had a lot more block touches that were able to make our defense’s job easier.”

Both teams reached the regional finals with huge semifinal wins, playing their best volleyball at the right time as Montgomery Academy defeated Bayside Academy in five sets and Prattville Christian defeated Mobile Christian in four sets.

“I think they came out a lot stronger this game because it meant a lot more to both of us,” Sidhu said. “But we also wanted it so much more. Playing Bayside, we knew after winning that game we were going to win it all. 

Both teams advanced to the state tournament as top-seeded Montgomery Academy will face Donoho in the Class A Private quarterfinals on Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. at Birmingham’s CrossPlex, while second-seeded PCA (19-25) will play Athens Bible on Tuesday at 1:30 p.m.

“I think we’re competing at our best at the right time,” Cantrell said, “which is what we’ve been talking about all year long. Those other games at the beginning of the year, they really don’t matter. What happens from here on out is what matters.

“We said in the huddle today that we want three more games. And I believe that we can do that.”

For the Panthers, Maddie Brownlee had eight digs and an assist, Anniston Robison had 10 digs, a block, 24 assists and two aces, Copeland Miller had four digs and four kills, Ella Claire Caudle had a dig, Christiana Franklin had two blocks, a dig and three kills, Haven Harrell had nine digs, Olivia Rossi had two blocks, eight digs and nine kills, Maren Diefenderfer had a block, nine digs, eight kills and two aces, Elle Maddox had six blocks, a dig and a kill and Sara Grach Smith had two digs.

For the Eagles, Elinor Grace Hines had 11 kills and six digs, Bennett Britt had 11 kills, a block and three digs, Morgan Springer had 11 kills, an ace and a dig,  Sidhu had a kill, a block, three aces, 12 digs and 26 assists, Caroline Wood had two kills, three blocks and two digs, Addison Kitchens had two kills, a block and three digs, Emilyn Trott had five aces and five digs, Lizzie Campbell had three aces, 17 digs and two assists, and Kathleen Johnston had an ace and 17 digs.

PCA, which reached the 4A state finals a year ago before losing to Cherokee County, couldn’t have envisioned a return to the state tournament at the beginning of the 2026 season.

“If somebody would have told me last week, I would have been like, ‘That’s a stretch,’” Cantrell said. “I just feel like the girls have really bought in the last couple of weeks. We’ve made some adjustments that I feel like gives them some confidence.”

Montgomery Academy envisioned this moment from the first day of the 2026 season. And if the Eagles’ South Super Regional title is any indication, they may have three more games left this season.

“It truly means so much,” Coleman said. “We’ve worked so hard and coming into it, we wanted every single point to go toward playing for a state championship. One point, no matter if it’s the first one or the last one, whatever game it is, every single point is trying to work to get better and to win a state championship.”