Ohatchee, AL – A ‘Hail Mary’ pushes Ohatchee over the top against New Hope in the second-highest game on record in AHSAA history.
This week’s games
THURSDAY, Aug. 22
Wellborn 46, Munford 12 (varsity half 32-12), jamboree
Spring Garden 41, Sand Rock 7
White Plains 35, Talladega 20
FRIDAY, Aug. 23
Anniston 28, Cleburne County 3, FINAL (jamboree)
Hokes Bluff 28, Westbrook Christian 10, FINAL (jamboree)
Central-Clay 40, Handley 7, FINAL
Piedmont 34, Cherokee County 27, FINAL
Gaylesville 42, Donoho 28, FINAL
Glencoe 31, Southeastern 12, FINAL
Jacksonville 43, Etowah 33, FINAL
Jacksonville Christian 67, Tuscaloosa Christian 38, FINAL
Shelby County 57, Lincoln 10, FINAL
Ohatchee 76, New Hope 71, FINAL
Oxford 56, Central-Carrollton (Ga.) 46, FINAL
Pleasant Valley 28, West End 12, FINAL
Mt. Zion (Ga.) 43, Ranburne 36, FINAL
Randolph County 34, Woodland 6, FINAL
Horseshoe Bend 22, Saks FINAL
Guntersville 35, Southside 13, FINAL
Wadley 34, B.B. Comer 6, FINAL
Oak Grove 50, Weaver 6, FINAL
By Joe Medley
Jake Roberson channeled his inner Kirk Cousins when he burst through the doors to Ohatchee’s locker room Friday night.
“You like that!” the tall Indians quarterback with the golden arm said to his teammates. “You like that!”
What’s not to like about the second-highest scoring game on AHSAA record, which ended with Roberson’s 37-yard, tipped-ball ‘Hail Mary’ to Brayden Collins for a 76-71, season-opening victory over visiting New Hope?
Playing a game that came together in a proverbial scramble drill, after the AHSAA announced reclassification and realignment last December, Ohatchee and New Hope produced 147 points. Central-Haneyville’s 78-72 (150) victory over Billingsley in 2023 marks the highest-scoring game on AHSAA records available at AHSAA.com.
Until Ohatchee’s Hail Mary, the game between two teams called the Indians ranked third, behind Childersburg’s 82-64 (146) victory over Central Coosa in 2016.
Ohatchee also set a new school scoring record at the Creekbank with 76 points, beating the Indians’ 70-22 rout of West End-Walnut Grove in 2018.
“That’s pretty crazy,” Roberson said. “I didn’t even know that.
“I knew it was going to be a high scoring game by how good our two teams’ offenses are. It just feels amazing to be able to come out on top of that and then be a part of it.”
New Hope quarterback Lucas Terry, who caught Dawson Cambron’s double-reverse conversion pass to put New Hope ahead 71-70 with 1:08 to play, sees it from both sides.
“There was a lot of offense played,” he said. “Defense, ours needs a lot of work, and so does theirs, obviously, but it feels good to put up that many points and know we’re going to be able to score a lot this season.”
The game might not have happened, if not for the fact that Ohatchee and New Hope wound up in rare nine-team regions when the AHSAA announced reclassification and realignment in December. It came together before first-year New Hope coach Michael Harper took over that job in June.
“It was a situation where we ended up getting put into a nine-team region, so the team we had scheduled before ended up being in our region — I think it was Plainview ,” said Harper, a former Jacksonville Christian assistant. “And so something happened with Ohatchee. They lost their last game, so New Hope and Ohatchee didn’t have a game, and so that’s how it happened.”
Who knew they’d flood the Creekbank with points?
“I did not think that,” Ohatchee coach Chris Findley said. ‘It’s more fun to learn after a win than a loss, but there’s a whole, whole lot of learning we’ve got to do on defense. Our offense played really well all night. Our defense couldn’t have played any worse.”
The full scoring summary lists below. The game came down New Hope erasing a 70-56 deficit in a 1:48 span, and Ohatchee making magic.
Jayden Heard’s 30-yard touchdown run put Ohatchee up 70-56 with 2:56 to play, but Cambron’s 54-yard, catch-and-run touchdown closed the gap to 70-63 at 2:22.
New Hope’s Layton Pohl recovered an onsides kick then scored on a 9-yard touchdown run to close the gap to 70-69 with 1:08 to play, setting the stage for Cambron’s double-reverse pass to Terry for the go-ahead conversion.
“We were tired,” Harper said. “We were banged up. We had a few people injured. We had a few people that played injured, and we went for two just because I didn’t want to go to overtime.
“I didn’t feel like we had much left in the tank to go to overtime.”
Could Ohatchee take advantage of New Hope’s fatigue? With Roberson’s arm and the skill arrayed around him this season, sure the Indians could.
They started the game-winning possession on their 24-yard line, and Roberson hit passes of 18 and 11 yards to Collins, who transferred from Ragland before this season. After an incomplete pass and delay penalty, Roberson found Colby Hester for a 15-yarder to the Ohatchee sideline, and Hester got out of bounds with 4.2 seconds left.
Ohatchee put three receivers to the right side, and Roberson dropped back and floated to his right. He lofted a pass toward the goal line.
“We called our Hail Mary play, and I just threw it up in the end zone,” Roberson said. “I threw it about as far as I could.”
On the receiving end, Hester and Collins played tip drill, with Hester tipping the ball back into the end zone.
“I told him (Collins) to come near me, and let’s do the tip drill that we do at practice all the time,” Hester said. “I ain’t going to lie to you. I thought we’d just lost, because I didn’t know he was there.”
Collins caught the tipped ball then raced back toward the Ohatchee sideline to celebrate.
“Coach was like, run down the field and go make a play,” Collins said. “I was like, ‘Yes sir. I got you.’”
Hester saw Collins after tipping the ball back into the end zone.
“Everybody just exploded,” Hester said. “I turn around, and I see it, and I just lose my mind, and I’m still freaking out about it.”
New Hope-Ohatchee scoring summary
FIRST QUARTER
–Layton Pohl gets New Hope on the board with a 1-yard TD run. PAT good, and NH leads Ohatchee 7-0 at 9:08 1Q.
–Nate Jones gets Ohatchee on the board with a 7-yard TD run. PAT no good. Ohatchee tails 7-6 at 37.9 1Q.
SECOND QUARTER
–Lucas Terry find Dawson Cambron for a 37-yard TD pass. PAT good, and NH leads Ohatchee 14-6 at 10:51.
–Jayden Heard bounces out, dodges tacklers, reverses field, dodges more tacklers and goes 41 yards for an Ohatchee TD. Conversion good. Game is tied 14-14 at 10:13.
–Pohl with a direct snap for 2 yards and a TD. PAT good, and NH leads 21-14 at 7:08.
–Jake Roberson lofts a 34-yard TD pass to Colby Hester. Conversion fails, so NH leads Ohatchee 21-20 at 3:31. A Hester interception plus a conduct call on NH set it up.
–Terry throws a shot to Pohl, 23 yards for a TD. PAT is good, and NH leads Ohatchee 28-20 at 2:16.
–Roberson throws to Hester, who shakes tacklers and goes 21 yards for a TD. Conversion fails. NH leads 28-26 at 6.4.
THIRD QUARTER
–Heard breaks a 60-yard TD run for Ohatchee’s first lead, and Roberson throws the fade to Hester for the conversion. OHATCHEE leads 34-28 at 11:18.
–Nate Jones bursts 90 yards for an Ohatchee TD. Roberson to Hester for the conversion, and Ohatchee leads 42-28 at 7:17.
–Pohl answers with a 9-yard TD, and PAT is good. OHATCHEE leads 42-35 at 5:43.
–Roberson throws deep, and Brayden Collins makes a catch and stop move before finishing off a 54-yard TD reception. Jones with the conversion run, and Ohatchee leads 50-35 at 5:27.
–Terry throws to Cambron, who makes nifty moves for a catch-and-run TD covering 36 yards. PAT good. OHATCHEE leads 50-42 at 1:51.
–After Heard fumbles the ensuing kickoff, Cambron takes a double reverse 16 yards for a TD. Personal foul and conduct penalties back up the conversion, and Terry is sacked. Ohatchee leads 50-48 at 1:32.
–On third down from the Ohatchee 11, Roberson takes a shot but delivers a bomb, and Heard turns it into a tipped-ball, 89-yard TD reception. Roberson to Hester for the conversion, and Ohatchee leads 58-48 at end 3Q.
FOURTH QUARTER
–After Collins recovers an onsides kick, Jones breaks a 32-yard TD run. Conversion fails, but Ohatchee leads 64-48 at 10:41.
–Pohl with a 5-yard TD run and conversion run. Ohatchee leads 64-56 at 4:39.
–Heard breaks a 30-yard TD run. Conversion incomplete, but Ohatchee leads 70-56 at 2:56.
–Cambron with a 54-yard, catch-and-run TD.PAT good, and Ohatchee leads 70-63 with 2:22 to play.
–After Pohl recovers an onsides kick, he scores on a 9-yard TD run to make it 70-69. OHATCHEE timeout ahead of the PAT. …Double reverse, and Cambron throws to Terry for the conversion. NH leads 71-70 with 1:08 to play.
–This is currently the third highest scoring game in AHSAA history.
–Roberson hits a 37-yard Hail Mary to Collins … OHATCHEE wins 76-71.
FINAL:Ohatchee wins 76-71 in the second-highest scoring game on AHSAA record.
