PREP FOOTBALL: Four area players help Alabama All-Stars top Mississippi again

Opelika’s Corey Grant, playing for the Alabama team, is brought down by Mississippi’s Patrick Black, left, and Furious Bradley during the fourth quarter of Alabama’s 21-13 win over Mississippi.

By: Staff and Wire Reports | Opelika Auburn News
Published: December 13, 2009

MOBILE — For two-and-a-half quarters of Saturday’s Alabama-Mississippi All-Star Classic, rain and punting ruled the day.

Then came the flood — of points, that is.

Coty Blanchard and Daryl Norris each threw second-half touchdown passes as Alabama claimed a 21-13 victory on Saturday at Ladd-Peebles Stadium. Alabama improved to 16-7 all-time in the series.

“We felt a lot more comfortable in the second half,” said Blanchard, from Alabama Class 4A state champion Cherokee County. “In the first half, we were trying to make things happen a little too much. At halftime, they talked to us about getting settled and letting things play out.”

Four area players — Dequavious Cobb and John Hix of Auburn High, Corey Grant of Opelika and Deon Hill of Central — participated in the game.

Blanchard hit Maudrecas Humphrey of Class 6A champion Hoover for a 21-yard touchdown to put Alabama on top 7-3 late in the third quarter. Norris, from Fairhope, hooked up with Murphy’s Solomon Patton — a University of Florida commitment — for a 50-yard score early in the fourth quarter.

Gadsden City’s Dale Trimble’s 36-yard interception return touchdown came at the 11:20 mark and put Alabama up by 18. Mississippi rallied for a 29-yard field goal by George County’s Will Scott and a 38-yard touchdown pass from Taylorsville’s Dominique Sullivan to fellow Southern Miss commit Markese Triplett of Louisville to pull within 8, but got no closer despite recovering an onside kick with 1:22 to play.
Trimble was named the game’s MVP.

“We played hard and had a good week of practice,” said Mississippi coach Anthony Hart of Lafayette County. “We just fell short. In the fourth quarter, we had bad luck.”

With the game played on a dreary, rainy day with temperatures in the low 50s, the two teams combined for just 27 yards and three first downs in the first half. Mississippi totaled only 44 yards in the game. Despite the two late touchdown passes, Alabama netted a mere 138 yards of offense all day.

Area players had few stats on the day.

Hill rushed for 7 yards on three carries, caught a pass for minus-1 yard and had a tackle on special teams. Grant rushed five times for 2 yards, caught a pass for minus-1 yard and returned two punts for 1 yard. Cobb had one tackle.

Alabama’s defense sacked Mississippi quarterbacks Sullivan and Jameon Lewis of Tylertown seven times. Oxford’s Jared Morse, a Vanderbilt commitment, had three of those sacks.

Most of the day’s early highlights involved punting, as the two teams combined to kick it away 18 times. The only points of the first half came from Mississippi MVP Will Scott of George County, whose 29-yard field goal put his team up 3-0 at the break.

Mississippi wide receiver Steve McNair Jr. of Oak Grove, a Southern Miss commitment and the son of the former NFL star, caught two passes for 1 yard and returned three punts for 59 yards, including a 57-yarder.