Anniston, AL – Anniston stays unbeaten, takes upper hand in Class 4A Region 4 race with dominating 32-7 win over No. 2 Handley
By Al Muskewitz
In some of the bigger games they’ve played over the past couple weeks, the Anniston Bulldogs didn’t mind resorting to a little trickery to keepII opponents on their toes. It was fun to do. It was fun to see. It kept things interesting. But when it came to their biggest game of the year Friday night, they played it super straight and couldn’t have been more serious about it. The Bulldogs played their most complete game of the year and their most dominant defensively in head coach Rico White’s tenure in taking down No. 2 Handley 32-7 to take the upper hand in Class 4A Region 4. It was a “special win,” the coach said, but for no other reason for a team that could have had many beyond what was on the table. “We wanted to play football, we want to show we’re a good team, that’s all,” White said. “Just line up and play football. Best man is going to win. We weren’t fixin’ to use tricks and win it, let’s play football. “You look the last few games, Piedmont, we ran trick plays, we did some of everything to keep folks off-balanced. This game I wanted to play hard-nosed football. Let’s run the ball on them, let’s show them what kind of team we have up front and the defense shut them down. “This is a sound team, you ain’t going to trick them. It’s hard-nosed football. You’ve got to come out and show I’m here to fight you. That’s what we did. We played hard-nosed football tonight.”
While there are still games to play, the fourth-ranked Bulldogs (7-0) have now beaten both of the teams that were expected to give them the biggest challenge in the region, so barring some kind of collapse they’ve effectively won the region title. It would be their first region title since 2011. They seemingly had it won last year after beating Handley on the road, but were stripped of it when the AHSAA ruled they had used ineligible players during the year and had to forfeit some wins reducing them to the No. 3 region seed. “I’m so happy, we’re region champs,” sophomore defensive end Grayshaun Swain said. “We haven’t been region champs in so long.”
The Bulldogs couldn’t have been much more balanced offensively. They rushed for 157 yards and passed for 156. Javon Thomas caught two touchdown passes from Kam Sandlin and Malachi Taylor rushed for three scores. Their relentless defense held the Tigers to 9 yards in the first half and 132 total for the game. “We haven’t put together a complete game where the offense was hitting on all cylinders and the defense shutting people down,” White said. “I think tonight was the first time since I’ve been here (five years) that we really played a solid defensive effort and a solid offensive effort.” “I’m glad the defense came and showed out,” Swain said. “They did real good on defense. It was the best game I played on defense so far this season. I’m pretty proud of our boys.” [*** read more]
