DECATUR, Ga. — After a tightly contested first half, the Arabia Mountain Rams pulled away late to down the new-look Alcovy Tigers 35-19 in the season opener on Thursday.
The Tigers showcased many new faces across the board, and the team had its fair share of success albeit in a loss.
Early into the third quarter of action at Buck Godfrey Stadium, the Tigers only trailed the Rams 19-21 due to two blocked point-after attempts(PAT) by Arabia Mountain.
The rest of the second half saw the Rams start to slowly pull away, and head coach Spencer Fortson noted how he wants to see his guys play with the same energy for all four quarters.
“First half [we] came out pretty good, we went down 14-12. Those two extra points sort of had us stopped,” Fortson said. “I definitely liked what we did offensively. In the second half we were maybe tired mentally. Like I told the guys, ‘You can’t win a game if you give up 35 points.’”
Bryant shows flashes in Alcovy debut
From the very start of Thursday’s action, the Tigers put their new air attack on display.
The new leading man for the Tigers offense, junior quarterback Trey Bryant, got his first live action in his new threads and he made the most of it.
On the opening drive of the game, Bryant took the air for a pair of passes over 30 yards that both ended up incomplete.
The first was caught, but receiver Kendrick Henderson was unable to stay in bounds for the completion. The second went off the hands of receiver Kavion Sutton, which led to an opening punt for the Tigers.
After a Rams’ touchdown on their opening possession, Bryant got it going.
With the ball in Arabia Mountain territory, Bryant passed it to Jaylen Randon, who maneuvered through multiple Rams’ defenders before he took off down the sideline for a 36-yard touchdown to even the game at 7-7.
Alcovy went on to have three consecutive empty possessions before they inched closer at the hands of Bryant.
Down 14-7 late in the second half, Bryant connected with Ayden Goddard on a pair of 15-plus yard gains that set the Alcovy offense up near the goal line.
With 36 seconds left in the half, Bryant took the ball in himself on a quarterback sneak to pull the Tigers within one after the blocked PAT.
Arabia Mountain matched Bryant’s score on the opening possession of the second half to put the Rams ahead by eight, but the junior once again found a way to answer.
Just a few plays into the ensuing drive, Bryant uncorked his throw of the day as he connected with Randon on a deep ball down the center of the field for a 63-yard touchdown pass.
Randon beat his man by 10 yards and once the ball was in the air, Bryant pointed to the sky as if he knew it was going for six.
“We definitely had some great things [on offense],” Fortson said. “We had some one-on-one matchups that we took advantage of. Trey made some great throws and the receivers made some great catches. Jaylon Randon came away with two of them. Coach [Echols] saw that and the staff prepared for that so we took advantage of what we saw on film.”
Those six points went on to be the final points of the day for Alcovy as the Rams blocked another PAT to hold the Tigers to their eventual total of 19 points.
From there, it was all Arabia Mountain.
Tigers defense gets after it in, but Arabia Mountain ultimately proved to be too much
The Rams offense got it done in many ways on Thursday, but majority of the success came from quarterback Joshua Owens and running back Zyeir Carswell.
Arabia Mountain’s opening drive was a long one as the team leaned on running back Alex Chambliss to move down the field.
Once in striking distance, Owens connected with Chambliss on a 5-yard touchdown reception to gain an early lead.
After the answer from Bryant and Randon, the Rams’ offense gave up their only turnover of the day.
On a rush to the outside, Chambliss lost control of the ball as multiple Tigers jumped into the pile to give it back to the Alcovy offense.
The turnover ended in no points for the Tigers as it allowed Arabia Mountain to take the lead just two drives later.
After another long drive, Carswell scored his first touchdown of the season on a three-yard rush as the Rams took the lead and never gave it back.
Up by two going into the second half, it took only four plays for the Rams to strike again as Jordan Walker exploded for a 47-yard rushing touchdown.
Following another answer from Bryant and Randon, Arabia Mountain silenced the Alcovy crowd once again on a three-yard touchdown pass from Owens to Julian Shanks to make it a 28-19 lead for the Rams.
The final touchdown of the game came from Carswell, who scored on a 21-yard rush to put the final touches on Arabia Mountain’s 35-19 win in week one.
The Alcovy defense did find success here and there as they forced the early turnover and brought down Owens for a trio of sacks, but the ground game for the Rams continued to weigh on the Tigers by the second half.
“We are still young up front, but we got to get 11 hats to the ball. That is the biggest thing I harp about with the defense," Fortson said. “We are young, but we are not really big so we got to be scrappy. In the first half we were flying around the football, but in the second half we were kind of waiting for someone to make the play. Instead of saying, ‘If I see it, let me be the one to go make the play.’ We kind of sort of waited around a lot. We got to get back to the mentality of, ‘If I see the ball, go hit the ball and play full speed.’ Can’t be afraid to make mistakes but you have to be able to go 110 percent and give all your effort.”
Final stats and what’s next
Bryant finished his day with a 7-for-16 line through the air with 163 yards. The junior passed for a pair of touchdowns and also took one in on the ground.
Randon caught three passes for 114 yards while Goddard finished with four receptions for 49 yards.
Next up for the Tigers is a matchup with a different Rams team in the form of county-rival Newton.
Newton defeated Alcovy 70-0 last year but the Tigers will enter this year’s contest in hopes of doing some damage in the passing game with the help of Bryant, Randon and Goddard.
Alcovy and Newton will face off Friday, Aug. 22 at 7:30 p.m. on the field of Sharp Stadium.
