Demopolis falls to Class 7A Auburn in regular season finale
Demopolis led 10-7 in the final minute of the second quarter Friday night and appeared poised to give Class 7A Auburn a 48-minute fight before the visiting Tigers reeled off 24 unanswered en route to a 31-10 victory.
The game turned in the final drive of the second quarter when Auburn capitalized on a pair of personal foul penalties against Demopolis to set up a 28-yard Avery Atkins field goal at the second quarter horn. The kick knotted the game at 10 heading into halftime.
“It was big. I know we were disappointed. Our kids played hard in the first half but we weren’t playing sharp football. It wasn’t surprising to our team because we know that they’re very capable. But that was big for us going into halftime,” Auburn coach Adam Winegarden said. “At the start of the second half we got the stop and were able to get a score and that kind of set the tone.”
“That was on us. That wasn’t on them the way the first half ended,” Demopolis coach Stacy Luker said. “I don’t think we really lost the momentum right there. I I think the fact they really took over the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball in the third quarter was a big factor. They were running four and five fresh bodies every snap from the middle of the third quarter on. It became a numbers game.”
Auburn shifted from the spread to a power run game in the second half and grinded Demopolis out of the game. Garrett Morris scored on a 7-yard run run midway through the third quarter and then added a 1-yard plunge on the first play of the fourth quarter.
“I said early in the week the key for us was to get off the field on third down. We didn’t against Hillcrest. We didn’t against Enterprise. We did in the first half tonight,” Luker said. “For their level, they’ve got to have that spread game and they’re wanting to do that. But, against us, that doesn’t work as well for them for whatever reason. In the second half, they sort of grinded on us and grinded on us.”
Auburn then used a Demopolis turnover to score 19 seconds later as Brooks Fuller hit Jay Knight for a 31-yard touchdown strike and a commanding 31-10 lead.
Demopolis led 10-7 with 1:15 to play in the first half when Logan McVay broke a 28-yard touchdown run.
All three Demopolis losses on the season have come against teams Class 6A and above. Despite the record, Luker is confident the scheduling has made a difference in his team’s playoff prospects.
“I feel like we adapted to the speed of play at that level and got better. We were so much better tonight than we were two weeks ago against Enterprise and, obviously, Aug. 18 against Hillcrest. I’m pleased that we adapted to the speed of the game and had to raise our level of play,” Luker said. “I was tickled with the emotion that we played with and the passion. We hadn’t seen that all year. I told our kids our coaching staff had as much or more fun coaching in this game tonight as we’ve had since the playoffs last year and it was because they were so engaged in the game and so passionate about what we were doing. I hope moving forward that’s just a positive sign for us.”
Demopolis (7-3) hosts Lincoln in the first round of the Class 5A state playoffs next week.
