Hillcrest Evergreen used a balanced offensive attack, a solid second half defensive effort and a big home crowd to overtake #1 Mobile Christian 33-23 in the ALFCA Game of the Week.
Mobile Christian started fast in the first half as Sam Ladner caught a pair of touchdown passes from Alex Moore and then threw one himself of 75 yards to T.J. Hall. Moore was 18-41 passing on the night and the Leopards threw for a whopping 455 yards. But the Hillcrest defense shut down the Leopard running attack and made the visitors one dimensional in the second half.
Hillcrest Coach C.J. Smith said before the game that his team needed to be able to run and throw the ball to have a chance to win the game. The Jaguars did just that as runner Andray Pope rushed for 154 yards on 17 carries and quarterback Ryan Nettles completed 17 of 32 passes for 206 yards. Pope also kicked 3 field goals for Hillcrest.
With the score 20-12 entering the third quarter, Nettles found Kobe Bradley with a 51 yard scoring strike to close the gap to 20-18. Minutes later, Nettles found Bradley again, this time from 27 yards out as Hillcrest exploded to a 24-20 lead. Bradley would end up with 11 catches for 161 yards. Mobile Christian cut the lead to 24-23 on a Justin Duke field goal, but Pope’s touchdown run and final field goal of the night in the fourth quarter salted the game away for the Jaguars.
Both Mobile Christian and Hillcrest now own identical 6-1 records. But the Hillcrest win created a four way tie in the 3A Region 1 race. Both teams are tied with Clarke County and T.R. Miller with 4-1 records.