Bombs away for Piedmont’s sad defeat

Bombs Away for Piedmont’s Sad Defeathttps://t.co/htMbYmBZXM pic.twitter.com/WIc0EZT991

— Calhoun Journal (@calhounjournal) December 2, 2022

Piedmont, AL – St. James QB throws five long touchdown passes in the second half to defeat Piedmont in Class3A final for first state football title

Al Muskewitz

Steve Smith, Piedmont’s coach, knew that there were plenty of playmakers on the other side. The Bulldogs had to contain them.

In the first half, the Bulldogs held a good grip on them during Thursday’s Class 3A state title game. But St. James junior quarterback K.J. Jackson threw five touchdown passes in the first half of the second period and the Trojans won to defeat Piedmont 45-28 at Jordan-Hare Stadium

In a match of two halves, two heroes, Jackson led the Trojans to a 20-10 halftime lead and won their first football state championship in 50 years of school existence.

One year later, it was a complete reversal in fortunes. Piedmont overcame a huge halftime deficit to win the state title last year.

After gaining momentum with a touchdown just before halftime, the Bulldogs’ second half began badly. Jackson continued to throw touchdown passes of 21, 48 and 57 yards, respectively, over the next 15 minutes. Ethan Brand, a 5-foot-7 receiver, received the last two.

Piedmont’s playoff loss of 45 points to St. James was the worst ever. In overtime, the Bulldogs gave 44 points to Saks.

Jackson was the game’s MVP. He was 6-of-7 and gained 283 yards passing in halftime — an impressive 661.03 NCAA passer rating,158.33 NFL — as well as 10-of-15 for 351 yard in the second half. Brand caught four balls for 194 yard.

Smith stated that Smith had witnessed the explosive playmakers on the field during the passing game. Anyone who was able to see the game could figure out our strategy: slow down the pace and limit possessions. In the first half, I thought we did a great job. It was a bit too easy in the second half and it snowballed a bit in the third quarter.

“I thought that we did a great job of settling back in and controlling and controlling the ball for the final quarter. It was back at 31-28. Jackson is a great player. They made some huge throws and it was difficult to cover them for that long.

The Bulldogs and Jack Hayes won the first half. Jackson was in the second half. Hayes scored all three Piedmont touchdowns in the second half, as well as all four of their goals in the game.

He carried it on his legs. On 35 carries, he ran for 214 yards. In the second half, the Trojans adjusted their defense to go to five in box and zero cover to decrease Hayes’ and Bulldogs’ expectations of running the ball and controlling the clock. In the second half, they held Hayes to just 73 yards of rushing and 2-16 passes for nine yards passing.

Jimmy Perry, St. James coach, said, “I’ll tell ya what, that quarterback Jack Hayes is something else –he is a burden.” “We had to put everyone in the box to slow him down.

Hayes stated, “They changed it up” and took away our efforts. “After the second half’s kickoff, we lost the ball and then they scored. It was all downhill from there. “We couldn’t get out of the hole that we were in.”

Although the Bulldogs managed to pull within 31-28 after Hayes’ 5-yard touchdown running to start the fourth quarter, they looked like they were going to win it again when they made a huge play on the kickoff. St. James then lost the ball at the 5. The Trojans won the game again when Jackson threw Brand his two bombs.

Jackson stated, “The first half, either we came out or I came out real slow.” It was nerve-racking. However, once we got to halftime everyone had faith in me and the lines gave me extra time. It was over from there.”

Perry stated that “in truth, we probably had more overall speed than they did.” “We misfired in the first half so we settled down and let our receivers do their thing.”

The Bulldogs were leading 20-10 at halftime, Hayes being the last game of his Piedmont record-setting career.

Under Smith, the Bulldogs won five state titles: 2009, 2015 and 2016, 2019, and 2021. Six of their eight previous championship games have been played in the Bulldogs’ favor. Hayes was on the team for four years, missing only 2020. He made his 60th career start on Thursday.

All three Piedmont touchdowns were scored by Hayes in the first period.

He led the Bulldogs to a touchdown their first possession of game. The Bulldogs’ 68-yard drive was completed with a 3-yard run. The drive saw him account for 69 yards in offense, highlighted by a 20 yard run and a 35-yard completion of Rollie Pinto on consecutive plays.

With 6:00 remaining in the first period, he ran for four yards. However, the Bulldogs failed to score the extra point. He answered St. James’ touchdown by running one yard with three seconds remaining in the half.

He rushed for 141 yards and total offense of 212 yards in the first half. Hayes ran for 387 yards, threw for 403 yards, and scored 12 touchdowns in his five state finals halves (2019, 2021 and 2022).

He is the career leader in state passing yards (11 014), total offense (25.1110), touchdown passes (158), and touchdowns accounted (223) which should earn him lots of support from the voters for Mr. Football.

Hayes stated, “It will mean the world if people choose to give it” “A state championship would have helped me, that’s all I know.”

Between Hayes’ two first touchdowns, St. James kick Jake Huff kicked a 40 yard field goal.

Piedmont was now down by three points after Cosner Harrison ran 13 yards for a touchdown at 2:39. Hayes brought the Bulldogs downfield, and used almost all of the remaining time before scoring on the final play of the half.

The Bulldogs thought it was a good sign as they received the second half kickoff. However, they lost the handle and St. James won back their championship bid.

The Trojans also started the game promisingly. On the first snap, Jackson completed a 36-yard pass from Beard to Jackson. However, they lost the ball on downs.

Smith stated that the first half went as smoothly as possible for us trying slow down the game. We felt that it would be difficult to match up with them at a track meet, which was high-scoring. It was a bit too much for us in the second half.

Hayes stated that “the second half just didn’t go our way.” They played better than us in the second half, and that’s what won them the game. After we lost the kickoff, you could see that they were excited and everything went downhill after that. We got ourselves into too much trouble and couldn’t get out.

P: Jack Hayes run (3-run with a Sloan Smith kick), 6 :47 1Q

SJ: Jake Huff 40 FFG, 0;35 1Q

P: Jack Hayes 4 run (kick failed), 6:00 2Q

SJ: Cosner Harrison 13 run (Jake Huff kick), 2 :39 2Q

P: Jack Hayes 1 run, Sloan Smith kick, 0:03 2Q

SJ: Clint Howser 21 pass by K.J. Jackson (Jake Huff kick), 11 :12 3Q

SJ: Ziggy Holloway 48 pass by K.J. Jackson (Jake Huff kick), 6/19 3Q

SJ: Clint Houser’s 57 pass from K.J. Jackson (Jake Huff kick), 4:13 3Q

P: Jack Hayes 5 run (Jack Hayes run), 11:55 4Q

SJ: Ethan Beard (93 pass from K.J. Jackson (kick failed), 10:53 4Q

SJ: Ethan Beard 53 pass K.J. Jackson (Clint Shores pass form K.J. Jackson), 8:29 4Q