Pike Liberal Arts wins AISA state title

By David Mundee

Published: November 22, 2008

TROY — In Pike Liberal Arts folklore, it will go down as “The Drive.”

Backed up at their own 10 and trailing 17-14 with 6:11 left in Friday’s AISA Class AAA state championship at Movie Gallery Veterans Stadium, the Patriots delivered the school’s biggest drive ever.

The Patriots marched 90 yards in 10 plays, scoring on a 1-yard Jerel Foster run with 1:29 left, then held off a final Fort Dale Academy possession to earn a 20-17 victory to win the school’s first football state title.

“It was amazing,” Pike Liberal Arts head coach Steven Kilcrease said of the final drive. “To go 90 yards on the best defense in the state is amazing.”

The win capped Pike Liberal Arts’ season at 12-1, a school-best mark in the program’s 38-year history.

“Amazing. Unbelievable,” said senior Douglas Hawkins, trying to describe the feeling of winning the state title.

While the title was the first for Pike Liberal Arts, it was the second for Foster, a transfer three years ago who was part of a state title at Pike County High School in 2005.

“It has to be the last one,” Foster said when asked which was sweeter. “Save the best for last.”

Foster, the leader rusher in the Wiregrass, was the workhorse of Pike’s offense Friday, carrying 35 of the 41 rushing plays and finishing with 224 yards and two touchdowns.

Fort Dale (10-3) forged ahead late in the third quarter on a Jeff Steed 2-yard touchdown run then forced a Patriot punt — the only one of the game for PLAS — and the Eagles took over with 8:56 to go.

After one first down, Pike forced a punt, which Hawkins fair caught at the 10 with 6:11 left.

With possibly only one drive left, Pike Liberal Arts players were undaunted.

“We were telling each other to focus and not panic,” Foster said. “If we panic, we get in tough situations and can’t focus, so I had a lot to say in the huddle about focus, not panicking and to take your time.”

Hawkins added, “I knew we could do it. It was matter of blocking.”

Kilcrease and the Patriot staff pulled out a different play to start the drive.

Most of the game Pike used quarterback Trey Walters under center with one or two backs in the backfield. Pike changed and put Hawkins in the shotgun with Foster flanked at the wide receiver.

Right at the snap, Foster went into motion and Walters handed it to him on a speed sweep. The play provided big results as Foster hit a hole on the left side and raced 46 yards to the Fort Dale 44.

“It was a play that we have run maybe only one game and we decided to give it a try and they didn’t adjust to it,” Kilcrease said.
The Patriots lined up in the same formation on the next play with Hawkins at quarterback, but he pulled it back away from Foster and tried to run outside. The Eagles, though, dropped him for a 2-yard loss.

Walters then connected with Hawkins on a 9-yard completion, setting up 3rd-and-3. Foster, however, got the first down on the left side with a 7-yard run.

It was the ninth successful third-down conversion in 11 tries for Pike Lib in the game. Fort Dale was only 2-of-9.

Foster then carried it for seven yards on two straight plays then 11 and five yards to the 1. After a Walters sneak failed to gain a yard, Foster — on his 35th and final carry of the game — scored up the middle.

Fort Dale’s Daniel Lowe blocked the extra point, keeping it 20-17 with 1:29 left.

The Eagles got one first down on a 14-yard run by Steed to the Pike 48, but the Patriot defense stiffened, thanks in part to a sack by Phillip Quincey, and Fort Dale’s series ended on downs with 18 seconds left.

Fort Dale struck first, scoring on a 30-yard touchdown pass from Dustin Till to Paul Whiggham with 3:41 to go in the first quarter. The extra point hit the upright and bounced back, leaving it 6-0.

Foster scored a series later on a 15-yard run and Josh Taylor’s extra point made it 7-6 PLAS.

The Patriots forced a punt on the ensuing series.

The snap was high and punter Eli Blackmon, despite leaping high, had it go off his fingers and to the ground. He picked it up and ran to his left, avoiding a Patriot defender, then punted away under pressure.

The ball bounced on the ground and was batted by a Fort Dale player. As players relaxed, Hawkins, Pike Lib punt returner, alertly picked it it up, raced to the other side and down the field for a 55-yard punt return for a touchdown.

“I knew the rule because me and my dad had gone over it this week,” Hawkins said. “If it touches one of their players, you might as well pick it up because it is dead right where they touch it, but it wasn’t stopped (downed). Even if I picked it up and I fumbled and they scored, it wouldn’t matter.

“You might as well as pick it up and go with it. Everybody just paused, but I kept going.”

The score put Pike up 14-6.

Fort Dale’s Sean Mckeague kicked a 25-yard field goal with 1:42 to go in the half to make it 14-9, which is how it stood at halftime.

Pike Lib wasted a scoring chance to start the third quarter, missing on a 25-yard field goal.

Fort Dale went ahead 17-14 when Steed scored on a 2-yard sweep to the right on fourth down and Whiggham scored on a two-point conversion with 1:24 to go in the third quarter.

Defensively, Pike was led by Corey Goodson with 12 tackles and Nick McLaughlin with 11. Will Starling added eight.

In stats, the game was almost even. Pike Lib finished with 267 yards and Fort Dale 260. Fort Dale edged Pike Lib 230 to 226 in rushing yards, but Pike had 41 yards passing to 30 for Fort Dale.

Pike Lib’s Walters was 6-of-7 passing for 41 yards with one interception. Fort Dale’s Till was 1-of-4 for 30 yards and Todd Burkett 0-of-1.

Fort Dale’s Steed had 93 yards rushing on 16 carries, Dill 60 on 10 carries and Daniel Nolan 49 on eight carries.