The Scottsboro football team ran its winning streak in its annual rivalry game with North Jackson to six, but it took the Wildcats every second of the clock to do so.
Class 5A No. 8-ranked Scottsboro rallied from a first-half deficit and held off the Chiefs for a 14-6 victory Friday night at R.D. Hicks Stadium in Stevenson during the 37th playing of the teams’ Battle of the Valley rivalry.
Scottsboro (2-0) has now won nine of the last 10 meetings in a series that North Jackson now leads 21-16. The teams have played every season since Bridgeport and Stevenson high schools consolidated to form North Jackson High School in 1988.
Scottsboro head coach Tyler Vann joined Patrick Nix as the only coaches in Scottsboro football history to defeat both North Jackson and Fort Payne during his first season with the program.
Vann was glad to get the win but said the Wildcats were fortunate to do so.
“Proud of finding a way to pull it out for sure,” he said.
A year after losing the Wildcats 44-14 last year, North Jackson head coach Joe Hollis Jr. said the Chiefs acquitted themselves well with a valiant effort in the rematch.
“The kids played with great heart and effort. The coaches did a great job getting them prepared. Just came up a little short,” Hollis said.
North Jackson (1-1), which had an early scoring opportunity snuffed out by Ty Fowler’s interception for Scottsboro, broke on top 6-0 with 4:04 remaining in the second quarter on senior Diego Holt’s 14-yard touchdown run.
Scottsboro was set to punt on its next possession, but quarterback/punter Jake Jones kept on a fake to extend the possession,and after a pass interference on a third-down play kept the drive alive, Jones threw deep for Tyler Shelton to the Chiefs 1-yard line. Jones scored on the next play, and Cole Raeuchle kicked the extra point to give Scottsboro a 7-6 lead with 12 seconds left in the half.
“Me and Jake talked about (a fake) in the huddle. Momentum was not in our favor and I didn’t want to see (North Jackson) find a way to go up two scores before the half,” Vann said. “Jake then made a big a throw to Shelton.”
Scottsboro stretched its lead to 14-6 on its first possession of the third quarter, a methodical 10-play, 45-yard drive that concluded with Eli Worthy’s 21-yard touchdown run.
After a time-consuming drive for Scottsboro ended in a missed field goal that followed a touchdown pass being negated by a penalty, North Jackson took possession with 7:23 remaining in the game and reached the Scottsboro 39-yard line. But a penalty followed quarterback sacks by Scottsboro’s Evan Petriske and Taygan Harris ultimately led to a turnover on downs with 1:27, allowing the Wildcats to run out the clock.
Scottsboro finished with 284 total yards and just 155 rushing on 41 carries, more than 100 fewer rushing yards it accumulated during last week’s 31-6 win over Fort Payne.
“Coach Hollis and his staff deserves a lot of credit for having his guys ready to go,” Vann said. “Told the kids at halftime, we didn’t match their energy in the first half. Wasn’t even close.”
Jones led the Scottsboro effort for a second straight week, rushing for 98 yards and a score on 10 carries while completing 6 of 11 passes for 129 yards. Worthy ran for 35 yards on seven carries and Jacobi Edmondson added 24 yards on six carries while Cohen Thompson (44 yards) and Jayden Gilbert (24 yards) had two catches each.
North Jackson ran for 162 yards on 35 carries, getting 86 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries from Holt and 71 yards on 15 carries from Nick Price Jr.
“We just have continue to fight, continue to play hard and play like Chiefs,” Hollis said, “and everything is going to work out just fine.”
While it was far from perfect, Vann was happy for the Wildcats to come out victorious in the latest chapter of the Battle of the Valley.
“We’ve got to be more physical. We were not physical on offense. They whipped our tail in the first half up-front,” Vann said. “(But) it’s good to come out with a win, but we played bad on offense. I thought our defense bent a lot tonight but they found a way. At the end of the day, in a big rivalry game, we’ll take a win (regardless of how).”
