By By Jimmy Boone/EMG sports writer
November 1, 2003
BUTLER, Ala. Sometimes you get tricks, but only one team gets the treat.
South Choctaw and Patrician both went to the bag of tricks, but in the end the Rebels pulled out a17-14 win.
The win was the first in 12 years by South Choctaw over its chief rival. The last time South Choctaw defeated Marengo, Charlie Taylor was a player on the field.
Taylor is now the head coach of the Rebels.
"That's the first time we have beaten them since my senior year," Taylor said. "We wanted to win bad, so we did everything we could."
Before the game, Patrician held a 27-3 all time record against South Choctaw.
Perhaps even more important is that South Choctaw (7-3, 5-2) claimed second place in the area and will host a first-round playoff game. Against Hooper.
With the loss, Patrician (5-5, 4-3) falls to fourth place in the area and most travel to Edgewood.
"We knew we would have a huge crowd here tonight, in fact I think we had more fans here than they did," Taylor said. "We decided to play some mind games."
Taylor charted a bus for the team to travel on for the 10-mile trip.
"We arranged for the bus to arrive late," Taylor said. "When the bus pulled up our fans started yelling from the moment the bus pulled up."
The next trick came on the opening kick off.
South Choctaw successfully executed an onside kick. Although the Rebels did not move the ball, it created momentum.
After punting the ball, Patrician took over at the 1, and could not mount an offensive drive. When a snap went over the punter's head, South Choctaw took a 2-0 lead on the safety.
Another punt attempt would lead to South Choctaw scoring a touchdown.
On the first play of the second quarter, the Rebels ran in and blocked a punt.
Logan Johnson snapped up the ball and ran 40 yards for a score. To put South Choctaw up 9-0.
"We felt like if we could get our ends down the field we would have a good chance at blocking a punt," Taylor said. "We were glad to have the lead at the half."
In the third quarter, Patrician dug into its own bag of tricks.
Beau Meeks completed a halfback pass to Travis Abate for a 52-yard touchdown to cut the lead to 9-6.
It was a similar play that allowed Marengo to pull out a late win over South Choctaw earlier in the season.
Two plays later Danny Roberts stepped in front of a Rob Dahlberg pass and ran the ball back 46 yards to the four yard line.
Russell Chatham would then scored from the three to put Patrician up 14-9.
The points would be the last Patrician would score as the Rebels defense would stiffen. South Choctaw would score one more time as Justin Bonner would race around right end and go 40-yards for the score.