Victory Christian, 33 Woodville 19

The Woodville team that Victory Christian played in Week Five was not on the field last Thursday in Pell City. It had been replaced by a much more physical and competitive squad that quashed much of the Lions’ offensive production and entering the fourth quarter, on the road mind you, down only by two (15-13) against a team that had beaten them by 36 points a little more than a month ago.

Coming out of halftime with an 8-6 lead, Hunter Cheatwood threaded a pass nine yards down the field to Christian Brown to extend the lead to 15-6 late in the third quarter.

On the ensuing drive, Woodville quarterback Nick Baker ran for his second touchdown on the night, closing the lead held by the Lions to three and the end of the third quarter.

Cheatwood’s second touchdown pass in the second half to Brown extended the lead to nine, and a late interception and return by Victory’s Shawn Traywick added six more points on the board and extended the Lions lead to 15 late in the game. Brown scored his third touchdown on a sixty yard play in the closing seconds.

Second Round Preview

Victory Christian (8-2) @ Berry-Fayette (10-2)

Berry is an opponent that scores big and scores early. Berry has scored 50 or more points on five different opponents this year, and typically score about three touchdowns in the first quarter of every game they have played this year. Their only losses are to 3A and 4A opponents, and Berry managed to keep those games competitive.

Defensively Victory Christian must do two things – slow down running back AJ Johnson, who has been averaging 144 yards-per-game this season, and get after quarterback James Raines who has a cannon of an arm and averages nearly 200 yards passing per game. Eight-plus in the box with Cover-3 or single-man coverage is what will likely give the Lions the best chance to make an early stop and remove first quarter momentum that Berry is accustomed to, as well as gap-plugging to stop Johnson and quickly collapsing the pocket on pass plays to disrupt a quarterback who throws great, but is not known as a scrambler. Victory Christian needs to play defense the way Alabama did last week against LSU. Imitate it, duplicate it, and win with it.

Offensively the Lions’ O-Line must give Shawn Traywick lanes to run in and protect Harrison Cheatwood, who is much more mobile than his counterpart at Berry. Coaches need to tell the offense they need four touchdowns per half to just stay in the game in case it becomes a shootout, which it likely will be.