Bulldogs stifle Southern Choctaw

Sweet Water (3-1, 3-0) played keep-away Friday night en route to a 14-8 road win over Southern Choctaw.

“It was a great football game,” Sweet Water head coach Stacy Luker said. “This is great for us. I was expecting this. I’m not surprised. This is good for our kids. This is good for our team. This was a war, two great football games going at each other. It was just a good old-fashioned backyard brawl.”

Sweet Water took its opening drive of the game 87 yards on eight plays and punctuated it with a five-yard touchdown run by Jakoby Aldridge.

The Bulldogs narrowly avoided an answer from Southern Choctaw when Daniel Sewell intercepted a pass inside the Sweet Water 5.

“We had 30 yards in penalties on one of their possessions. Gave them first and goal at the 8 and Daniel Sewell picked off the ball at the four,” Luker said.

Sweet Water responded with an methodical march that milked the second quarter clock and ended with a 12-yard run scoring run from Aldridge.

“We turned around and we threw up a 97-yard, 19-play drive in the second quarter and Jakoby scored on a 12-yard run with 19 seconds left to go,” Luker said.

The teams traded possessions to start the second half before Sweet Water put together another long drive to shorten the game.

“Then we threw up a 13-play drive that ate up over six minutes on the clock and we turned it over on downs,” Luker said.

The Indians scored with 9:30 to go in the game on a one-yard run from Quentin Adams.

The Bulldogs had only seven possessions in the game, but managed to amass 257 yards on the ground.

“We had 257 yards rushing, put two backs over 100 yards,” Luker said. Aldridge finished with 121 yards on 25 carries while Deon Waters added 107 yards on 16 carries.

The win marked the first time since 1964 Sweet Water has beaten Southern Choctaw, a team it had not previously played during Luker’s tenure at Sweet Water.

Sweet Water will host Maplesville next Friday night.