Wetumpka will hold its trophy for another year.
The Indians beat Tallassee, 18-17, in the second annual Battle for the County 7-on-7 tournament held at the Wetumpka Sports Complex. The Indians, which also won last season, went 5-1 and beat every single team in the county.
“We lost our first game in the weather and our downpour,” Wetumpka coach Bear Woods said. “We’re in the process that you can’t speed up with the new offensive coordinator, new quarterback and new receivers so I’m not surprised that we played better in the last game instead of the first game.”
Tyler Johnson led the Indians’ offense the entire game, and he found a ton of success after the onslaught of rain that plagued every team in the first game.
Following the first game, Johnson was able to lead Wetumpka to 19 points, 19 points, 37 points, 33 points and 18 points.
Johnson has made big plays for Wetumpka before. As a freshman, he led the Indians on a game-winning drive against Stanhope Elmore to put Wetumpka in the playoffs. After transferring out of the program, he’s back and leading the offense for one last season.
“I thought Tyler was tremendous tonight,” Woods said. “Physically, he showed he was the best on the field. He showed he could make every throw. He loves the deep ball and he was launching it, and when Evan Dillard was catching them for touchdowns it was incredible. He’s doing a great job and he’s really only three weeks into the new system. The sky’s the limit for Tyler.”
Dillard was the team’s best scoring threat on Friday night. He scored in four of the team’s six games and lit up rival Stanhope Elmore in the final round robin game. In that matchup, he scored four touchdowns and led Wetumpka to the highest scoring total of the night by any team – 37 points.
He had eight touchdowns on the day.
“Evan is really fast and he’s jittery,” Woods said. “A lot like his brother Mike, he has a high football IQ and he understands football. He understands coverages and he knows where the defense opens up. He’s able to really put his routes in a spot to be successful.”
In the bracket portion of the tournament, Wetumpka was the No. 2 seed and faced No. 3 seed Holtville in the semifinals.
The two teams went back and forth and were tied with under a minute left when Dillard caught a deep pass wide open for the game-winning touchdown. Holtville had one chance left and the Bulldogs were able to get down inside the five-yard line before running out of time.
In the championship game, Wetumpka played a Tallassee team that beat the Indians earlier in the day and was undefeated.
That didn’t matter, however, as Wetumpka jumped out to a 18-6 lead with just a few minutes left on the clock. The Tigers were able to cut the lead to one point, 18-17, after an interception, turnover on downs and a touchdown pass, but Wetumpka’s defense forced a sack on the final play of the night to secure the one-point win.
“They made two plays to win that first game in the rain and for both teams to make it back to the championship just shows that both teams competed well,” Woods said.
