The Edgewood Academy football team came up just short in its season opener on Friday night.
Autauga Academy, the defending AISA AA state champions, beat Edgewood Academy, 22-7, to open each team’s season. The Wildcats (0-1) found themselves in the Generals’ red zone three separate times on the night but came away with zero points in those three possessions.
“This game came down to big plays,” Edgewood Academy coach Chad Michael said. “They made three big plays and we missed three big opportunities. That was the difference in the game. I thought we left at least 14 points off the board there and that ties the game. It was just missed opportunities and we let them make big plays.”
The Generals (1-0) started the scoring off on a 39-yard touchdown pass from Mason Ehmen to Noah Ray to go up 6-0 after Edgewood blocked the point-after attempt.
The Wildcats drove down the field late in the first quarter, but they turned the ball over on downs inside the 10-yard line. Following that, Autauga Academy’s Cameron Wright scored on a 75-yard touchdown to go up, 13-0, with six minutes left in the game.
Edgewood once again had a chance to score and make it a one-possession game going into halftime, but quarterback Austin Champion was intercepted on the two-yard-line.
“I probably made some bad calls in those situations and put us in bad situations,” Michael said of the red zone trips. “We have to make good decisions as well.”
Wright struck again on the Generals’ first possession of the second half. He took the handoff to the left side of the field and raced 60 yards for a touchdown to put Autauga Academy up, 20-0.
“He outran us to the edge a couple of times. We didn’t get the edge set and once he broke down the containment, we didn’t have any guys who could keep up with him.”
Edgewood was able to get on the scoreboard on a 50-yard pass in the fourth quarter from Champion to Bradley Boone. Boone caught the pass one-handed and outran everyone to the end zone.
That was all the Wildcats could get, however, as their last redzone attempt ended with another turnover on downs as a touchdown pass was called out-of-bounds.
Autauga Academy sealed the scoring with a safety after Edgewood was called for a penalty in its own end zone.
