Opelika gets carved up in 1st game

Welcome back to Class 6A, Carver-Montgomery.

From the looks of their first game back, the Wolverines have already made themselves at home.

Carver ripped off 483 yards of total offense — 373 coming in the first half — and big play after big play to bury Opelika, 55-34, in its first game as a 6A member in three years.

Opelika gained 555 yards on the game, but two costly turnovers and seven Carver plays of more than 20 yards proved to be too much.

“Judging by the score, it went fairly well,” Carver coach Alphonso Pogue said. “We had some big plays, gave up some big plays, and if we want to be a contender, we can’t do things like that.”

It was the most points an opponent had hung on Opelika since a 64-9 loss to Central in 1968.

”It’s hugely disappointing,” Bulldogs coach Brian Blackmon said. “When you think about all the things coaches say you can’t do and win, we did all of those things.”

Carver (1-0) served notice from the first drive of the game that its speed would, in fact, kill.

On a third-and-21 from the 35, Wolverines quarterback Jeremy Johnson found Antonio Pitts open in the middle of the field and Pitts just kept running for 65 yards to put Carver up, 7-0.

“I can honestly tell you we didn’t underestimate their speed,” Blackmon said. “I think we just got beat by a dang good football team and we beat ourselves a little bit.”

For a quarter at least, it looked like Opelika (0-1) could keep up.

The Bulldogs answered right back with a lightning strike of their own, as Dalton Pritchett hit

Braden Rogers in stride for 50 yards and a tie game with 7:54 to go in the first quarter.

After Carver drove down and went ahead on a Stanley Robinson 6-yard run, Opelika struck again with some trickery, as Pritchett lateraled to Calvin Bryant, who threw a 52-yard touchdown strike to Cameron Hill that pulled the Bulldogs within 15-14.

But the Wolverines had yet another answer, with Johnson finding Willie Coleman in open space and Coleman sprinting to the house from 70 yards, putting Carver up, 22-14.

That, mercifully ended the first quarter. Then Carver really got to work.

Harvey Harris took a draw and went 71 yards for the score to open up the second quarter, and Johnson threw a 15-yard touchdown to Pitts with 8 seconds left in the half to send the Wolverines into the break up 21.

Carver twice staved off Opelika uprisings in the second half.

The first came on the Bulldogs’ second drive of the third quarter, when they drove inside the Carver 15. But on a 4th-and-Goal from the 11, Pritchett threw an interception to Meryles Gilbert, and Gilbert took it 97 yards to the house to put Carver up 42-14.

Opelika showed signs of life again  at the beginning of the fourth, when Pritchett found Bryant for an 84-yard touchdown on a 3rd-and-19 to cut the Wolverines' lead to 42-27.

But a 26-yard Robinson scamper and another strike from Johnson to Pitts on the Wolverines’ next two drives shut the door for good.

Johnson, a sophomore, went 11-of-19 for 246 yards and four scores on the night, Robinson ran 17 times for 116 yards and two touchdowns, and Pitts had four catches for 97 yards and three touchdowns.

“We played against a good football team,” Pogue said. “We got some breaks and we were able to hold them off at the end.”

Pritchett finished 20-of-32 for 301 yards and three touchdowns against two interceptions, and Bryant — along with his 52-yard strike to Hill — caught three passes for 109 yards and two scores and ran six times for 53 yards.

“We never quit,” Blackmon said. “As long as you keep doing that, you’ve got a chance. We’ll regroup.”

dmorrison@oanow.com | 737-2568