Jacksonville, AL – The Raiders open their season with a 34-15 win over a Donoho team that shut them out a year ago; White Plains drops a close one at Homecoming
After giving up two deep-ball touchdowns in its jamboree last week, Pleasant Valley went to work on defending the pass and it paid off in a big way against a Donoho team that threw it all over the yard in the second half of its season opener. The Raiders used a balanced offensive attack that produced five rushing touchdowns and a defensive scheme that got everyone involved to win its season opener for the first time since 2019, beating a Donoho team that shut them out last year 34-15.
Quarterback Braxton Salster completed five of seven passes for 76 yards and scored on touchdown runs of 16 and 1 yards. Dalton Haynes rushed for 64 yards and touchdown of 8 and 6 yards. And Dason Vick rushed for 77 yards with a 10-yard touchdown run. Samuel Duncan led the defense with 14 tackles and a sack. Vick had eight tackles, including two for loss, and an interception. And Haynes had six tackles, including one for loss, and an interception.
“They played very good, especially after the amount of points Donoho scored last week,” PV coach Jonathan Nix said. “They really threw the ball really well last week against Weaver. “In our jamboree game, we played Collinsville a half and got beat 14-0 but we gave up two deep balls, so we worked hard this week on trying to defend the pass and moved some folks around and it really paid off, so I’m really proud of that side of the ball.” Donoho came from three touchdowns down in the third quarter last week to beat Weaver. The Falcons threw for 264 yards in the second half. “This Donoho team beat us 25-0 last year; we had to start the season off with that,” Nix said. “Our kids were real motivated during the off-season. I’m happy for them, for them to see all the work that they put in pay off for each one of them on the field.” [*** read more]
Oak Grove 27, White Plains 25
The Wildcats played yet another nail-biter, this time coming up short at Homecoming after rallying from 15 points down in the fourth quarter to hold the potential game-tying two-point conversion in their hands with less than four minutes to play. Trailing 27-12, they drove downfield to get a touchdown from Divontae McCormick and extra point to get within 27-19. After stopping Oak Grove again they got a long touchdown run from Dylan Barksdale to get within two. They drew up a play for the tying two-point conversion, but Barksdale missed Brandon Hahm.
They still had time to get the go-ahead score if they could make another stop. Rodney Perry ripped the ball away from an Oak Grove ballcarrier and the Wildcats recovered in their end with less than a minute left, but couldn’t generate a final drive. “I was proud of the way our guys competed,” White Plains coach Chandler Tyree said. “I hated that we came up on the short end of it, but super proud of the way we didn’t give up. Too little, too late. One of those games that hurts.”
Barksdale finished the game with 191 yards rushing and three touchdowns on 18 carries. McCormick rushed for 45 yards. The Wildcats amassed 321 yards of offense, with 262 coming on the ground. Wade Thompson was their leading tackler with 17, while Hahm had 16 tackles, including three for loss. Hayden Barksdale had an interception. The Wildcats opened their season last week with a win that came down to the wire against Ranburne, but this time the tight finish went against them.
“I don’t know what it says,” Tyree said. “I know we’re super young, so we’ve got a bunch of growing up. This experience with these close games is going to help us going forward, especially with those younger guys. If they continue to mature and get older, it’s going to help us out a ton but they’re just having to grow up. “Our kids responded and played extremely hard. We just can’t get down by that much.”
JCA 49, Trinity 6
Quarterback Noah Lee completed 12 of 15 passes for 239 yards and four touchdowns for the Thunder. Lee has been responsible for nine touchdowns in the first two weeks of the season.
