By Justin Graves

Justin@athensnews-courier.com

Most successful football coaches will tell you that in order to win a state championship, you must have a few breaks go your way.

Athens definitely caught a few breaks in Friday’s 23-13 win at Hartselle in the Class 5A quarterfinals.

The biggest break of the night came when a Hartselle defender deflected a pass from quarterback Rob Ezell, and the tipped ball fell into the hands of Dewon Tisdale for a 47-yard touchdown – giving the Golden Eagles a 17-13 lead with less than two minutes remaining.

Creasy said that even though it wasn’t a designed play, he would still take plays like it anytime.

“That definitely wasn’t the way we drew that one up,” he said. “But sometimes you need things like that to happen. During that time period, there were some dropped balls we should have caught, so it all evens out. Two guys who’ve had knack for making things happen over the years made that play. It was a great play.”



The next step

Athens will host J.O. Johnson – who beat Russellville 19-14 – Friday in the Class 5A semifinals. Even though the Golden Eagles beat the Jaguars 21-14 at Milton Frank Stadium earlier in the season, Creasy expects this week’s game to be Athens’ toughest matchup of the year.

“They’ve got a great football team,” Creasy said. “We kind of expected them (Johnson) to win Friday. It shouldn’t surprise anyone who’s had to prepare for both teams that Johnson won. I think the better football team won Friday night.”

Creasy still remembers how Johnson successfully moved the football against Athens earlier in the season. He said the main thing the Golden Eagles must do this week is contain Johnson’s speed.

“They’re (Johnson) playing with a lot of confidence right now,” Creasy said. “They’ve got the type of offense that score on you from anywhere on the field. Johnson probably has the best offense that we’ve seen since we played at Milton Frank in week nine.”

One bright spot for Athens is that the semifinal matchup will be at home.

“It’s huge that we’re getting to come back home and play this week,” Creasy said. “Our fans had a good showing at Hartselle. It was a capacity crowd there and it was an electric atmosphere. We’re expecting an even better atmosphere this week at home.”



Stiff defense

Since the playoffs began, Athens has preformed well in all phases of the game. But one area that’s really stood out is the Golden Eagles’ defense. Athens has held opponents to 10 points per game in the playoffs this year.

Creasy said that to win in the playoffs, your defense has to play at a high level.

“We’ve got a pretty good defense,” Creasy said. “But you’ve got to play good defense to get this far. We’ve been coming up with big plays when we need them, but we’re going to need to keep it up. Our defense has been huge for us in the playoffs, but so has the other parts of our football team.”



Falling hard

East Limestone may have fallen hard in its 37-7 loss to Guntersville in the Class 4A quarterfinals, but Indians coach Jeff Pugh had no complaints about the performance he received from the team in his first year as head coach.

After finishing the regular season with a 6-4 record, East Limestone started to peak in the playoffs. The Indians reeled off two huge wins against Cherokee County and Tarrant in the opening rounds.

“Our players showed a lot of heart this year,” Pugh said. “They had to overcome a lot of things to get to this point. None of our players ever gave up. They continued to fight and things started to happen. I’m really proud of the way these players carried themselves this year. It would have been easy to give up, but they didn’t. They should be commended for that.”

Guntersville travels to Alexandria Friday for the Class 4A semifinals.