Sylvania, AL – Piedmont is in the ending zone late however Sylvania takes away Bulldogs 23-7 defeat in Class 3A’s Region 6 game by hitting Parham on them repeatedly.
FRIDAY, Sept. 8 Moody 42, Alexandria 7, FINAL
Anniston 47 Munford 14 FINAL
Central-Clay 41, Tallassee 7, FINAL
Cleburne County 42, Talladega 13, FINAL
Ragland 66, Donoho 0, FINAL
Hokes Bluff 47 Glencoe 7. FINAL
Handley 32, Jacksonville 24, FINAL
Southside 29. Lincoln 8. FINAL
Ohatchee 34 Westbrook Christian 33 FINAL
Oxford 42, Shades Valley 13, FINAL
Sylvania 23, Piedmont 7, FINAL
Pleasant Valley 34, West End-Walnut Grove 14, FINAL
Ranburne 38, Fayetteville 19, FINAL
Randolph County 38, Childersburg 28, FINAL
Beulah 38, Saks 24, FINAL
Wadley 41, Spring Garden 7, FINAL
Dadeville 26, Weaver 20, FINAL
B.B. Comer 45. Woodland Zero FINAL
OPEN: Jacksonville Christian, Wellborn, White Plains.
By Joe Medley
Piedmont had a chance to make major plays several times in this Bulldogs Class 3A Regional 6 matchup against Sylvania in the Friday showdown, however the play that hammered the Bulldogs repeatedly won.
Aiden Parham carried 46 times for 332 yards, scoring three times in the Rams beat the Bears 23-7 win in a match which featured Class 3A’s eighth as well as ninth-ranked squads.
A week after the loss of Piedmont to the Class 4A runners-up Cherokee County, the Bulldogs lose to Sylvania and leave the team with their first start of 0-2 since 2004. They’re also 0-1 in regional play.
In his first year as Piedmont head coach Jonathan Miller inherited a program which had a remarkable run throughout Steve Smith’s 17-year career with the program, winning five state championships. Smith went on in order to take over as Westbrook Christian’s coach.
Miller also took over an organization that dropped nine offensive starters as well as the quarterback Jack Hayes, who who broke Alabama High School Athletic Association record-breaking records for total yards, touchdowns passing yards, touchdown passes.
The Bulldogs dropped six defensive starters.
The team played the first quarter of the game on Friday in the absence of Wide receiver Ishmael Bethel, who was sat out the final quarter of the game for because of disciplinary reasons, Miller said.
It wasn’t helping that a team with a young age started the season with a loss to Cherokee County as well as Sylvania.
“I knew that they’d be difficult,” Miller said. “I believe we need be doing some soul searching, but not necessarily soul-searching and we’ve got people who have been injured and bruised. We need to come up with a plan of action for moving forward.
“We’ve removed these issues from the way, and now we’ve needed to regroup a while we tackle the remainder of the program.”
It wasn’t helping that Piedmont had to contend with the “long liste” of injuries in the game on Friday, Miller said. The defensive tackle Fisher Adams, running back Dontavious Jordan and defensive back Trevor Pike all sustained in-game injuries.
Sylvania attempted to attack Piedmont with a swoop early as did quarterback Griffin Turner’s blunder attempt at the Rams first snap fell off of Zack Anderson’s fingers tips.
The Rams attempted more passing on the first down but they knew they had the ability to run Parham running Parham and did. The touchdown run of his 1-yard length brought the score to 7-0 at 6:25 of the opening quarter and his 7-yarder at 3:43 secured the lead to 14-0 at halftime.
Parham’s 67 yard breakaway at 6:36 in the fourth quarter was the backbreaker. It occurred following the Piedmont’s Cole Wilson threw incomplete on fourth down. Three and it made it 23-0.
“They’re huge in the front. This is the reason he goes,” Miller said. “Their team members in on the front push him to go and they did an excellent job getting an hat to go on and letting him play the ball.”
Piedmont depended heavily on Wilson’s arm to carry the ball however Rollie Pinto’s legs helped get the Bulldogs to the goal line. He scored with a 15-yard run in 4:22 left.
Piedmont was close to chances to score huge plays. Bethel opened up on an slant that was deep during the 3rd quarter but Wilson’s pass went just in front of him.
Pinto was one tackle away of breaking kickoff returns twice.
“We put certain things unfinished,” Miller said. “We weren’t executing as well as we would have liked to. We’ve got to definitely get better all over the entire board.”
Pinto stated that the Bulldogs will improve.
“I can assure you that we’ll rebound,” he said. “We’re 2-2 but this is a solid Sylvania team and we’re located in a tough region however, we’ll rebound.”
