PRICHARD — Mario Richardson broke open a 4-point game with a 4-yard touchdown run with 1:10 left in the game to help Vigor secure a 13-3 win over Valley in the first round of the Class 5A playoffs at Prichard Stadium on Friday night.
With the win, the Wolves (8-3), host Spanish Fort — a 45-14 winner over Eufaula — next Friday night. Valley’s season is over.
Richardson finished with 51 yards on 10 carries, and Deangelo Miller came on strong in the second half after a slow start and finished the night with 22 carries for 130 yards and a score. Vigor finished the night with 240 yards total offense —189 of them on the ground.
The Wolves’ defense was tough all night, holding Valley (7-4) to 128 yards of total offense. Rams quarterback Ty Still was 3-of-15 for only 14 yards and an interception, and had five carries for 43 yards.
Vigor clung to a 7-3 lead when Marquel Gardner intercepted a Ty Still pass with 6:28 left in the game. Vigor then drove 77 yards — all on the ground — as it ate up the clock and got big runs of 15 and 20 yards from Miller to keep the drive alive. Miller’s final run of the 10-play
drive got the Wolves to the 4, and Richardson pounded it in on the next play.
“It was a must-score for us,” said Richardson. “We knew that either we scored or we would go home. Deangelo blocks for me, and I block for him. It’s like the Allstate slogan, ‘You’re in good hands.’”
“I saw the defense step up, and I knew I had to step up, too,” said Miller. “We couldn’t have done it without the offensive line.”
“We wanted to get behiind our big offensive line,” said Vigor coach Kerry Stevenson. “Early on, we had some big gains, but we were getting some holding penalties. Our quarterback could never get it going, but we finally got momentum in the second half.”
Vigor took a 7-0 first quarter lead on Miller’s 6-yard run. The score capped a nine-play, 71-yard drive, with the key play a 45-yard pass from Marlon Moore to Marvin Shinn.
Valley’s offense, which had been silent for most of the first half, showed some life when it drove from its 24 down to the Vigor 26 on Jamarcus Darden’s 15-yard run on fourth-and-5 with 27 seconds left.
Two plays later, Still scrambled to the Vigor 11, and after an incompletion, Jared Danford’s 30-yard field goal made it 7-3.
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