Slocomb pops Raiders as ‘Juicy’ burns defense

The speed of Jermaine “Juicy” Williams and the power of Scottie Burdeshaw shredded Houston Academy’s highly touted defense for 490 yards during Slocomb’s 42-17 win at Northcutt Field on Friday night.

Williams ran for 342 yards on 26 carries with four touchdowns, while Burdeshaw had 148 yards on 24 carries with two touchdowns.

Houston Academy had allowed an average of just 8.3 points per game and had an 18-game winning streak at home going into the contest.

The two running backs accounted for all but six carries for the Red Tops, which had no yards passing on two attempts.

“I read my offensive line — it’s all my line,” Williams said.

And while the Red Top offensive front did open some big holes, much of Williams’ success came from quick cutbacks and explosive speed to break free when it appeared he was about to be stopped.

He had touchdown runs of 58, 25, 40 and 27 yards.

“Man, when you’ve got a guy like Juicy who can make a guy miss ...,” Slocomb coach Jeff Mitchell began. “And when you run the Wing T and you’ve got guards pulling — my two guards opened up some huge holes.”

It marked the second straight week Slocomb has knocked off a state-ranked team. The Red Tops beat Pike County last week, which was previously ranked No. 7 in Class 3A. Houston Academy came into Friday night’s game ranked No. 4 in Class 2A.

“Their line just dominated us on both sides of the ball,” Houston Academy coach Jimmy Addison said. “We played hard — I think we had good effort. They’re a really good team.”

Both the Red Tops and Raiders are now 4-1 on the season.

“We haven’t won four in a row in a long time, and we hadn’t beaten Houston Academy in about four years,” Mitchell said. “This is a sweet win.”

Houston Academy lost its standout running back and linebacker Seth McGowan to a shoulder injury early in the second quarter.

“When you lose your starting tailback and starting middle linebacker, then you have to take a defensive lineman (Lit Flowers) and put him at linebacker, it’s tough,” a frustrated Addison said.

“Andrew Dauphin (running back) has been out with an injury, so then we have Jo-El Bennett playing running back and he’s the starting safety. We ran out of skill people tonight.”

Dauphin, who had missed the two previous games with a shoulder injury, did see action in the second half and returned a kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown after the Red Tops had built a 28-3 lead.

But by that point, Slocomb had the game well in control.

The Raiders scored on the opening drive of the game when Will Andre booted through a 39-yard field goal. McGowan carried the ball six times for 57 yards on the possession.

Slocomb got on the scoreboard with 1:23 left in the first quarter when Williams went right, then cut back to his left and was off to the races on a 58-yard run. Wesley Aplin kicked the first of six made extra points for the 7-3 lead.

Williams again reversed his field midway through the second quarter to dash 25 yards for a touchdown and a 14-3 lead. On the play before the score, Slocomb went for it on 4th-and-3 from the HA 49 and made a first down when Burdeshaw got loose for 24 yards.

In the tough-yardage situations, Mitchell called on Burdeshaw and the bruising runner delivered.

“He’s a hard-nosed runner,” Mitchell said. “When I have to get a yard, I know he’s the guy to go to.”

With just under six minutes left in the third quarter, Williams broke loose on a 54-yard run down to the HA 1, where Andre made a nice saving tackle. A play later, Burdeshaw went up the middle for a touchdown to extend the lead to 21-3.

After Williams’ 40-yard touchdown run made it 28-3, Dauphin took the ensuing kickoff and burst up the middle and then broke to the right for a 90-yard kickoff return for a score with 1:48 to play in the third quarter. There was a bad snap on the extra point attempt, leaving the score at 28-9.

Midway through the fourth, Williams scored his final TD of the game on a 27-yard run.

Houston Academy then put together a nice 65-yard scoring drive, culminated by a 7-yard touchdown pass from J.H. Johnson to Britt Owen. the Raiders converted a try for 2 when Johnson connected with Wilson Brakefield on a pass to make it 35-17.

Johnson was 8-of-12 passing for 85 yards in the game.

Burdeshaw scored on a 34-yard run with just under four minutes to play for the final touchdown.