Melvin Pete Jr.’s biggest game decision may be me how to balance star linebacker Robert Woodyard’s snaps on offense with his play on defense.
Well, that and when to try to punt.
Woodyard, a longtime Alabama commit, scored three touchdowns Thursday night and the Class 4A No. 9 Lions rallied to hand No. 10 St. Michael a crazy 26-23 loss at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile.
It was the first loss in the high school coaching career of former NFL quarterback Philip Rivers.
“He’s a heck of a player,” Rivers said of Woodyard. “I told him ‘Roll Tide’ when he was on our sideline one time. He laughed.”
Woodyard scored three of the five times he touched the ball on offense for the Lions (2-2, 1-0). He went down to the ground to catch a 10-yard, fourth-down TD pass from Daniel Miller for the first score of the game then added touchdown runs of 50 and 10 yards.
“He caught that one on fourth down,” Rivers said. “We can do a better job on that all the way around. Then he had the long run and the one he cut all the way back and, obviously, on defense he’s tough to get blocked. That is pretty obvious.”
Woodyard’s third touchdown gave Williamson an 18-13 lead with 4:47 left in the third quarter. Miller then slammed into the end zone on fourth-and-1 with 8:09 left in the game to bump the lead to 24-16. After a sideline penalty on St. Michael, Jahkobe Shaw converted the two-point play for a 26-16 lead.
“My hat is off to Kobe Shaw,” Pete Jr. said. “He has the biggest heart on the team. He carried us tonight.”
St. Michael (2-1, 1-1) got back within striking distance on a bizarre special teams play. Backed up at their 1 with less than three minutes left in the game, Williamson opted to punt. The kick went straight up in the air and was caught – in the same end zone – by St. Michael’s Justin Helper for a touchdown. The extra point cut the Williamson lead to just 26-23 with 2:27 still remaining.
Williamson also had punts of 1 and 17 yards.
“I second guessed myself because I wanted to take the two points (safety) and then punt the ball and play field position,” Pete said. “I thought, ‘We will get it out.’ We had been blocking pretty good in the punting game. It’s something we’ve worked on in practice. But, when we are under the lights, none of our kickers can kick. I just don’t understand that.”
The Lions covered an ensuing St. Michael onsides kick, but the Cardinals still had a chance after Williamson was backed into a third-and-17 following a personal foul penalty. However, Shaw picked up 17 yards and the first down, and the Lions ran out the clock.
“We had them third-and-15 or whatever and were going to get the ball back and have a chance, and they made a good play,” Rivers said. “No. 5 (Shaw) can run. 1 (Woodyard) is a heck of a player and 4 (Tyrek Gaines) is a heck of a player and 3 (Darryon Pough) and 7 (Orin Wilson). They’ve got a bunch of good players. No. 11 (Miller) made some plays. We just didn’t play well enough to win.”
Star of the game: Woodyard has the big name and did score three of the team’s four touchdowns, but Shaw did carry the load for the Lions. The senior ran 30 times for 178 yards.
Key play: It may have been a penalty actually. St. Michael had a chance to regain the lead late in the third quarter. A 39-yard pass from Josh Murphy to Bray Green moved the Cardinals to first-and-goal at the 7. However, a procedure penalty before the next snap moved St. Michael back five yards. The Cardinals couldn’t get the ball in the end zone and ultimately settled for Ezra Sexton’s 23-yard field goal, leaving the Williamson lead at 18-16.
Stat leaders: Williamson – Woodyard finished with 72 yards on offense on just five touches. Miller was 3-of-10. He threw one TD pass and ran for another. He was intercepted twice. Pough had 2 interceptions for the Lions. Gaines intercepted a pass on the first play of the game. St. Michael – Josh Murphy was 15-of-30 for 249 yards. He threw TD passes of 15 and 12 yards to William Ford. He was intercepted three times. Austin Maloney and Tyler Cella both had interceptions for the Cardinals. Freddie Seibert covered a fumble.
By the numbers: 3 – Turnovers forced by each team. … 9 – penalties on Williamson. St. Michael was penalized four times.
Now that’s weird: With St. Michael facing third-and-goal from the Williamson 8, Murphy threw a pass on the sideline to Sexton. Sexton got a hand on the pass before he and Pough went to the ground. The ball never touched the field and eventually was pinned to Pough for the interception with 2:27 left in the game.
Welcome back: Rivers returned to Ladd-Peebles Stadium for the first time since he was MVP of the 2004 Senior Bowl.
Coachspeak: “We keep a gauge on how many plays he is playing. We keep an eye on him at practice and see when he might be faltering a bit. That’s basically how we do it. But he breaks long runs ‚and we can’t gauge that.” -- Pete on how to balance Woodyard’s total plays.
They said it: “It was a heck of an effort. We just made too many mistakes. We made some mistakes last week, but we only had one turnover and we got some turnovers. Tonight, we had a turnover the first play of the game. Another turnover at the end of the half. Then the last turnovers was a little freakish with the ball sitting on his back.” -- Rivers.
“We rely on on our defense. We put our hats on them all the time. It should be the mainstay until our offense catches up. We are making strides, but we just haven’t got our feet under us yet.” -- Pete.
“What has changed is Williamson Lions are this fired up to beat St. Michael. That will tell you something. ... You can’t turn it over like we did and be some sloppy in some areas and win. We begin again. We are 2-1. This wasn’t the end all, be all. We’ve got a long journey ahead. Yes, this would have been big to get it, but we have a long way to go. This is our first experience together losing. We’ll see how we bounce back next week.” -- Rivers.
What’s next? Williamson hosts W.S. Neal on Sept. 17 at Ladd-Peebles Stadium. St. Michael plays its fourth straight Thursday game, hosting Escambia County in Fairhope.
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