Nine from Wiregrass receive state honors

Eagle staff
Published: September 9, 2008

Nine football players from the Dothan Eagle coverage area were honored for their play from last week’s games by either the Alabama Sports Writers Association or the Alabama High School Athletic Association.

The nine were Daleville’s Tevin Flowers and William Knight, New Brockton’s Tevin McNair, Geneva County’s Rico Reese, Charles Henderson’s Justin Smith, Opp’s Hunter Jones, Barbour County’s Devondrick Richardson, Slocomb’s Jermaine Williams and Goshen’s Marcus Jackson.

All nine were named to the AHSAA Spotlight, while six of the nine — McNair, Smith, Jones, Richardson, Williams and Jackson — were honored by the ASWA.

Both the AHSAA and ASWA highlight top individual performances from the previous week from nominations sent in to their respective organization.

The ASWA, which breaks up performances into offense and defense/special teams,  named Brantley’s Anthony Gulley as the defense/special teams player of the week and Fairview quarterback Trett Hardman as the offensive player of the week.

The AHSAA, which lumps all performances into one, selected Phillips of Bear Creek’s Kent Hallman as the player of the week.

Below are the Wiregrass area performances selected by the two organizations.

William Knight, Daleville: The receiver caught seven passes for 121 yards and two scores on offense and led the Warhawks defense with six tackles, an interception and a fumble recovery in a 29-14 win over Geneva.

Tevin Flowers, Daleville: Passed for 244 yards and two touchdowns, completing 14-of-23 attempts, in the win over Geneva.

Tevin McNair, New Brockton: The running back piled up 212 yards rushing and all four touchdowns in his team’s 28-27 win over G.W. Long. He scored on runs of 1, 2, 9 and 2 yards and also had six tackles on defense.

Rico Reese, Geneva County: The quarterback was a near-perfect 13-of-15 passing for 204 yards and five touchdowns in a 67-0 rout of Kinston. He did most of his damage, which included TD passes of 12, 19, 19, 20 and 25 yards, in the first half.

Justin Smith, Charles Henderson: The place-kicker connected on four field goals covering 23, 33, 27 and 25 yards as the Trojans beat Tallassee, 25-7.

Hunter Jones, Opp: Jones booted a 23-yard field goal in overtime to lift the Bobcats to a 24-21 win over Holtville. He was also perfect on three extra points.

Devondrick Richardson, Barbour County: Rushed for 180 yards and both Jaguars’ touchdowns (33 and 89 yards) as Barbour County beat Samson 12-6 to go 2-0 for the first time ever. Richardson also had 15 tackles on defense. Richardson’s TD runs came on 33 and 89 yards.

Jermaine Williams, Slocomb: Nicknamed “Juicy,” the Red Tops’ running back ran for 212 yards and two touchdowns in a 36-12 win over Headland.

Marcus Jackson, Goshen: Rushed for 265 yards on 25 carries and all three Eagles touchdowns in a 21-7 win over Zion Chapel. He scored on runs of 1, 2 and 70 yards.

Gulley scored four touchdowns and finished with 328 all-purpose yards in a 48-8 win over Providence Christian. Gulley scored on an 80-yard kickoff return, returned a punt 60 yards for another score, scored on an 89-yard run from scrimmage and caught a 61-yard pass for another touchdown. He finished with 117 yards rushing on two carries and made an interception on defense.

Gulley won the ASWA honor, beating out Gardendale linebacker Tyrone Bowie, who had 17 solo tackles with six assists along with a forced fumble in a 29-13 loss to Vestavia Hills, and Shelby County’s Dustin Wood, whose sack and two interceptions keyed the Wildcats’ 26-3 upset over Class 5A’s No. 2 team Briarwood Christian. The Wildcats held Briarwood to less than 100 yards in total offense.

Fairview’s Hardman threw for 394 yards with seven touchdowns in a 65-34 win over Douglas. He completed 22-of-34 passes with one interception, six TDs in the first half and only played two series in the second half. Hardman has thrown seven TDs twice since last year. He also did it against rival Holly Pond last season.

The two other finalists for offensive player were Flomaton’s Tony Ellis and Springville’s Jeremy Richardson. Ellis rushed for 340 yards on 25 carries and scored five touchdowns in a 38-14 win over Red Level. Ellis scored on runs of 7, 32, 2, 12 and 50 yards. Richardson had nine catches, three touchdowns and 207 yards against Pleasant Grove for a 23-yard per catch average and 44-yard per catch average on the TDs.

Phillips of Bear Creek’s Hallman, who wears jersey 34, scored 34 points in the game with five touchdowns coming in a variety of ways. He rushed eight times for 68 yards and two touchdowns.

He also caught four passes for 121 yards and two more scores, including a 74-yard connection from quarterback Adam McCarley who passed for 206 yards.

Hallman also scored twice on two-point conversions, and on special teams he returned a kickoff 87 yards for a TD. He also had four tackles from his linebacker position.

His 276 yards tandem offense came on just 13 touches — 21.2 yards per play. Phillips rolled up 461 yards total offense for the night.