Sweet Water streaks past Southern Choctaw

Taking advantage of numerous Southern Choctaw miscues and rolling up 341 rushing yards in the first half, Sweet Water High School streaked past the Southern Choctaw Indians 54-6 at Nolan Atkins Stadium Friday night.

“We came out fast,” said Sweet Water head coach Stacy Luker, “but that’s what we ask of our players every week. Our backs looked explosive tonight and our offensive line did a good job.”

That explosiveness was evident on the first series of the game, when Sweet Water’s Jakoby Aldridge opened the scoring with a 45-yard touchdown run. The extra point was wide left.

Southern Choctaw answered after recovering a fumbled punt at the Bulldog 40, scoring moments later on a 25-yard Keundric Leverett run. The extra point attempt was blocked, leaving the score knotted at 6-6, but Sweet Water grabbed the lead for good on the next series, marching 67 yards with a mix of running plays to Aldridge, Demarcus Gamble and Daniel Sewell. The big play in the drive was a 24-yard Aldridge run, and the score came on Gamble’s one-yard plunge. Tristian Weatherly kicked the extra point to give Sweet Water a 13-6 lead.

In the second, Sweet Water racked up 34 points to take a commanding 47-6 halftime advantage. The second period scores came on runs of 23 and 11 yards by Sewell, 21 yards by Gamble, 37 yards by Aldridge and 49 yards by Xavier McIntosh. Weatherly connected on all but one of the second quarter PATs.

Gamble set up Sewell’s first touchdown run with a blocked Southern Choctaw punt, while a Kyle Patterson fumble recovery and a McIntosh tackle on a SCHS fake punt set up two of the other scores.

“Special teams did a good job for us tonight,” Luker said. “They got a turnover or two for us.”

Sweet Water’s final touchdown of the night came on a 37-yard Eric Jenkins run in the fourth quarter.

Jenkins, in a backup role, was Sweet Water’s second leading rusher on the night, with 70 yards on seven carries. Aldridge led all ball carriers with 165 yards on 12 attempts, while Gamble had 58 yards on eight rushes and Sewell added 54 yards on four attempts.

McIntosh’s lone carry was for the 49-yard score.

Sweet Water quarterback Branson Davis completed his only pass attempt of the evening, which was good for 10 yards to Gamble.

The Bulldogs, now 3-1 with a perfect 3-0 region mark, travel out of region next week to face Maplesville.

“It ought to be fun,” said Luker. “They are one of the two one or two 1A programs in the state, and Maplesville is a great place to play. It will be a good game for both teams, an out of region game with no playoff pressure.”

Sweet Water won a 17-14 thriller at home against Maplesville last year.