Aldridge scores five times as Sweet Water topples WCHS
By Jeremy Sellers
Special to The Watchman
Sweet Water senior Jakoby Aldridge breaks free for one of his five touchdown runs of the night Friday.
CHATOM — If you were not at Jordan-Wilcox Stadium on Friday night, then you missed one of the premier performances of the season. Jakoby Aldridge led his Sweet Water Bulldogs to a 35-32 win over No. 1 ranked Washington County via 369 all-purpose yards and five touchdowns.
“This was a great win for us,” Sweet Water head coach Stacy Luker said. “This was a great team effort. Players and coaches both did an excellent job for four quarters.”
The Bulldogs of Washington County jumped out to an early lead when Kerrigan Pennington scored from 63 yards out on a quarterback keeper. The extra point was good, giving Chatom an early 7-0 lead.
The next three scores would belong to Sweet Water, and all three came on runs by Aldridge. The touchdown scampers were from four, 39 and 82 yards, respectively. The first two extra points were no good, but the Bulldogs were able to add a two-point conversion following the third score to give them a 20-7 advantage with 7:56 remaining before halftime.
Washington County would come fighting back before the half. Pennington added another touchdown run and he also completed a 29-yard touchdown pass to Cedrick Chapman with 23.5 seconds left before halftime.
Both teams went into the locker rooms for halftime with the score all tied up at 20-20.
Bulldogs #41 DeAmonte Greene and #7 Xavier McIntosh tackle the Wash Co.RB for a loss in a key 4th quarter play.
Sweet Water scored on its first drive back out from halftime when Aldridge earned his fourth touchdown of the night. This time, he scored from 16 yards out. The extra point attempt gave the Bulldogs from Sweet Water a 27-20 lead with 8:19 left on the clock in the third quarter.
Deanthony Holcombe got Washington County on the board again via a five-yard touchdown run with 8:38 left in the game. Sweet Water came up with a huge blocked extra point to leave the score at 27-26 in favor of Luker’s squad.
Aldridge added his fifth touchdown of the game with 1:51 left in the contest. Luker elected to go for two in order to put the game out of reach and the gamble paid off. Aldridge found the end zone to give Sweet Water a 35-26 lead.
Washington County, however, was not ready to go away just yet as it added another score with 52 seconds left in the game. Their extra point failed, leaving the score at 35-32 in favor of Sweet Water.
The onside kick attempt was unsuccessful for Washington County, leaving Sweet Water to take a knee and take the victory back to Marengo County.
“We asked our guys this week to play hard for four quarters and we really feel like they did that.” Luker said.
Sweet Water finished with 347 yards of total offense and Aldridge accounted for 289 of those offensive yards.
Sweet Water (5-2, 5-0 2A Region 1) will travel to Choctaw County next week while Washington County (6-1, 4-1 2A Region 1) will travel to Mobile Christian.