At halftime, Lowndes Academy and Wilcox Academy were locked in a surprising 7-7 tie for the Alabama Independent School Association Class A title at Cramton Bowl on Thursday.

Lowndes Academy coach Shane Moye had a few choice words for his players in the locker room.

“It was definitely intense,” Lowndes Academy quarterback Clayton Hussey said. “That’s what we needed. We were kind of playing on our heels. Hats off to Wilcox. They played hard and relentless. It definitely was not over until the clock hit zero.”

Moye said it was time for his players to change the narrative.

“It’s definitely different being the huntee instead of the hunter,” Moye said. “The pressure of winning gets to you, and I think the first half showed that. I think we played not to lose instead of playing to win like we have the last couple of years. That’s what we talked about at halftime. I told them, ‘Listen, we’re not playing anything like we’ve played for the last three seasons, we’ve got to go take what’s ours, they’re not going to give it to us.’”

Hussey went out and threw a pair of touchdown passes in the third quarter and the Rebels churned to their third consecutive state title with a 20-7 win over the Wildcats.

Lowndes Academy (13-0) concluded the season as AISA’s only unbeaten team by beating the team this group of Rebels could never beat in middle school.

“This senior group has been super special,” Moye said. “They hold dear to my heart. For the past three seasons, they’ve given me everything they had and they’ve been able to hold that trophy up three times.”

Wilcox Academy concluded finished 10-4 in its first season under head coach Lebo Jones.

“Those two pass plays really hurt us,” Jones said. “One, we walked up, trying to stop the run, and they checked off to it and made a great play. Then, they ran the ‘water bucket’ play, walked in off the sideline, and we didn’t see him to score the other one. But I was proud of our defense. That team scored 500-something points this year, and we just held them to 20 points.”

Hussey scored on an 18-yard run midway through the second quarter, but Wilcox answered three plays later when Julian Curry got behind the defense and JP Beck found him with a 76-yard strike.

“We were ready for it,” Moye said. “No. 5 (Curry) and 4 (Beck) just made plays and continued to make plays all night.”

Hussey had the answer in the third quarter, hitting Bradyn Stokes with a 24-yard pass over the middle, then hitting Watters Box near midfield and Box sprinted to the end zone for 73-yard play.

“In the first half, we got so run-heavy they were flying down and blitzing,” Moye said. “So we tried to loosen them up so we could run the ball.”

Wilcox drove into the red zone twice in the second half but turned it over on downs both times.

“We’ve played 14 guys pretty much all year,” Jones said. “We don’t have much depth. I thought we did all we could do. We tried everything in the book. They’ve only given up 51 points all year, and it shows. Everything we tried, they were pretty much all over it.”

8-man

Cornerstone 66, Springwood 18

Cornerstone Christian quarterback Zeke Adams was running in his end zone when a Springwood defender was blocked into him.

Adams bounced off the defender, kept his balance and sprinted 97 yards for a touchdown to help the Chargers rally from a 12-point deficit and defeat the Wildcats 66-18 in the Alabama Independent School Association Eight-Man finals at Cramton Bowl on Thursday.

It marks the first-ever football championship for Cornerstone (11-1), which defeated Springwood for the second time this season.

“It’s a wonderful feeling,” Cornerstone coach James Lee said. “These guys have worked so hard to get to this point and we’re just so thankful.”

Springwood ends the season at 9-3 after losing in the finals for the second consecutive season.

Adams finished the game with 335 yards and four touchdowns on 21 carries, but no run was bigger than his first touchdown scramble to help the Chargers rally from a 12-0 deficit.

“It was a call to the left, stack right, and I realized I could cut in or go out,” Adams said. “I chose out. It paid off in the end, I just had to keep my balance.”

A pair of touchdown runs by Adams, the second one covering 90 yards, helped Cornerstone finally gain the lead at 22-18 late in the first half but the game took a turn against the Wildcats moments later when Springwood quarterback Luke Hudson dropped to pass and crumbled to the ground. Cash Causey scooped up the fumble and went 55 yards to make it 30-18.

“I went downfield to block (earlier in the game) and I was blocking the guy and felt my knee shift out of place and pop,” Hudson said. “I got carried off the field, but I didn’t want to go out. There’s no way I was taking myself out of the game. I continued to try and play but it just collapsed on me when I tried to throw a pass later on in the game. I was trying to give it all I’ve got. It just didn’t turn out good.”

With an injury to Dylan Reeves the previous week, the Wildcats had no one left to turn to. Tailback CJ Johnson, who had 161 yards and two touchdowns on 28 carries, ran out of steam quickly as the only runner.

“In eight-man, you’re thin anyway and that was quarterback one, two and three,” Springwood coach Joey Burch said. “We kind of got where we couldn’t throw the ball, we couldn’t run our offense. We ran poor C.J. Johnson to death. We were very predictable.

“We’ve all been there, when you turn around to get someone to sub and there’s nobody there. I got a couple of delay calls because I tried to come up with some plays that would get us positive yards and maybe rest some people.”

This post will be updated