Peabody ties South Gibson on road

MEDINA - With the atmosphere of a November playoff game, county rivals Trenton Peabody and South Gibson battled to a 21-21 tie in a 24-minute scrimmage Friday night that featured explosive offenses from both teams and poor tackling that is often associated with the early season.

A 46-yard touchdown run by quarterback Lou Rechis with 5.8 seconds left in the last period looked like a South Gibson game-winning score before it was called back for offensive holding. Instead a 42-yard field goal attempt with just 1.5 seconds left was way short leaving the game tied.

“This was as close to a game-like atmosphere as you will get,” said Peabody coach Shane Jacobs. “Our kids are disappointed. You like to win jamborees and all that stuff, and I am glad they are disappointed. That's fine. Overall, nobody is hurt. It is a positive night. Come Monday we will get better, and we will be fine next week.”

Sophomore Jasper Albea's third score of the night, a nine-yard run with 6:59 left, put Trenton Peabody up 21-14, but Hornet senior Aalyc Walker's 77-yard scamper down the left sideline gave South Gibson the last score with 4:37 left.

“They [Trenton] are good, and they are very well-coached,” said Hornets coach Scott Stidham. “They do everything to not beat themselves and that is a tribute to Coach Jacobs and his staff.”

Trenton's opening drive of the scrimmage featured Albea's running and new senior starting quarterback Jacob Taylor directing the Golden Tide to a 7-0 lead as Albea's surged 13 yards for a touchdown with 8:23 off the clock in the first of two 12-minute halves.

Four minutes later, junior South Gibson's Calem Rich broke free for a 24-yard scoring run tying the contest at 7-7. With just 1:22 before halftime, Albea's four-yard touchdown, set up by a 39 yard sprint from freshman Jarel Dickson, gave Peabody a 14-7 lead at the break.

“We knew we had some really good players,” said Trenton's Jacobs of his new starters. “The popular opinion around is how good the players were who we graduated, but we got some great kids still in this program. We got some great athletes. We love our kids and we love what we have coming back. I have had confidence in these kids all along.”

South Gibson's Dre McAllister's 20-yard race down the right sideline on just the second play of the second half tied the game at 14-14 setting up the excitement late in the scrimmage.

“Our offensive line did some good things and allowed us to get our running backs going,” said Hornets coach Scott Stidham. “I thought everybody out there offensively did some good things. We were pretty efficient. We had too many dumb penalties. We can't jump offsides. That is one the main things that we work on is no foolish penalties. We need to improve on that.”