October 23, 2021
By Reagan Payne
For East Alabama Sports Today
Yellow Jackets’ third straight win after a rough start brings program a third straight region title
OXFORD – The Oxford Yellow Jackets had a whole lot to play for Friday and they played like they weren’t going to be denied.
Quarterback Sam Robertson threw for 211 yards and three touchdowns and Yellow Jackets scored 41 straight points on the way to routing Fort Payne 41-13 to win a Class 6A Region 7 title that about a month ago looked out of reach.
The Jackets (6-3, 5-1) have won three in a row since their open date after a 3-3 start that included a loss that flipped over an opponent’s ineligible player.
They went into Friday’s game locked in a three-way tie for first with Fort Payne and Arab, but they beat Fort Payne to erase that threat and had the head-to-head tiebreaker over Arab for the region crown.
It’s their third straight region title – a first since 1982 – and made coach Sam Adams only the second Oxford football coach win a region title in his first year coaching the team. Not even the legendary Bill Burgess or Robert Herring had that on their resumes.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Adams said. “There’s been a lot of adversity we’ve fought through, and now we’re playing our best at the right time.
“Next week, we’re playing one of the best teams in the state (7A No. 3 Central-Phenix City in the regular-season finale). We know, too, that we have bigger fish to fry. It’ll be a big challenge for us, but we’ll be up for it and we’ll give it our all.”
Big scoring plays were the order of the day. Jordan Dobbins recovered a fumble in the end zone for an early touchdown. D.K. Wilson ran 48 yards for a score. E’mari Carroll had a 61-yard catch right before halftime. And Jaden Dobbins went 60 yards for a score.
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