Aldridge runs for 335 as Sweet Water runs through Luverne to semifinals
Jakoby Aldridge sprints into the open for a portion of his 335 rushing yards Friday night against Luverne.
LUVERNE — Sweet Water overcame an early deficit on the strength of a 335-yard night by Jakoby Aldridge to down Luverne 34-24 in the Class 2A quarterfinals Friday.
Preston Sankey returned a punt 63 yards for a score to put Luverne up 6-0 before TraQuez Watkins hauled in a 4-yard pass from Kentarius Womack to stretch the advantage to 12-0.
Sweet Water (10-3) would answer with a 22-point second quarter to take a lead it would never lose.
“We played hard. We didn’t play smart, didn’t coach well. We got out-coached, got out-played and the best team won tonight unfortunately,” Luverne coach Mike Dubose said. “I was disappointed in the way we played defensively, disappointed in the way we played offensively. You’ve got to take your hat off to Sweet Water. They know how to win, how to win championships and they do a great job.”
The Bulldogs covered 77 yards in 12 plays to get on the board with 8:32 left in the second quarter when Aldridge scored on a 3-yard run for the first of his four touchdowns on the night.
Luverne (11-2) answered at the 2:46 mark to stretch it to 18-7 when Le’Vontae May scored on a 2-yard run after Uriah Brown blocked a punt at the Bulldog 15.
His team down 18-7, Aldridge took a handoff on the next play from scrimmage, made one cut around the right side and found the sideline for a 73-yard touchdown run. Tate Gibbs then hit Tristan Weatherly on a fake field goal for the 2-point conversion to cut the deficit to 18-15.
The Sweet Water defense forces a fumble Friday night against Luverne.
A little more than a minute later, Aldridge did it again, going 71 yards for a score to put Sweet Water up 22-18.
“I think we had trouble with the speed of it to start with. They’ve got a great passing game. They’ve got good spacing. They do a great job with it, but I think our kids adjusted to it,” Sweet Water coach Stacy Luker said of his team’s response to the Luverne passing attack. “We had some huge stops. We told them all week long we had to win third downs and stop explosion plays. I think we did that for most of the game.”
The Bulldogs opened the second half with a 12-play drive that covered 56 yards and milked six minutes off the clock before Aldridge punched it in from five yards out to stretch the lead to 28-18.
“It ain’t the first time we’ve been behind. It ain’t the first fight we’ve been in. That’s for sure,” Luker said. “Our kids responded the way we were expecting them to. We fought. We played tonight.”
Luverne fired back with 10:35 to play when Womack connected with Marcel McMillian for a 47-yard scoring strike to pull the Tigers to 28-24.
Sweet Water then marched 53 yards on nine plays to take more than four minutes off the game clock and stretch the advantage to 34-24 on a 9-yard Demarcus Gamble run.
“I think Demarcus came up huge. He was physical with his running and it was time to run him in that situation,” Luker said.
Aldridge finished with 335 yards on 36 carries.
“We knew we were going to have to load him up,” Luker said of Aldridge’s workload. “Our other guys are chasing the quarterback all night long and covering passes. We knew we were going to have to load him up.”
McMillian led Luverne with 115 yards on seven catches while Watkins had nine catches for 91 yards. Womack completed 23 of his 40 passes for 260 yards, accounting for the vast majority of Luverne’s 299 total yards.
Xavier McIntosh recovered a fumble for the Bulldogs. TreyVon Bodiford recovered a fumble for Luverne.
Sweet Water advances to a rematch of the 2012 state semi-finals against Washington County, which beat Mobile Christian Friday night.
“We knew they were fighters. I’m tickled. We’re so blessed right now because we’re healthy after 13 games and we’ve been in some fights,” Luker said of his team. “God has really blessed us through this so far. We’re just on a ride. We’re back to 0-0.”