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Central-Tuscaloosa 57 Opp 13
The Opp Bobcats have something to build
upon after finishing the season 6-5 and advancing to their first 1st
round playoff game in four years. The Falcons' Demario
Pippen rushed for 172 yards and two touchdowns on 11 carries as the
Tuscaloosa team dominated gaining 525 yards.
Opp though made it close early as Josh Scarbrough scored from 1 yard out
to tie the game 7-7. Central scored on their next two possessions
making it 21-7 enroute to the 57-13 victory.
Central will play at Elmore County next week - while Opp starts
preparation for 2008. Congratulations Bobcats on a great turn
around and helping to build a "foundation for the future".
Elba tops Bobcats
The Elba offense put up 41 points as Tiger quarterback Trey
Martin traveled with 328 yards through the air with three
touchdowns and added another touchdown rushing. On the
other side, Opp struggled while an injured Cody Hall watched
from the sidelines.
Opp travels in the first round of the play-offs to 10-0
Central-Tuscaloosa.
Elba (7-3) host Winfield in round one.
Opp High School Bobcats - Program 23
Opp advances into Playoffs
The last two years have not been pleasant for the Bobcats - back to
back 1-9 seasons. Last year was a building 1-9 with new head
coach Jack Whigham in his first season. If there is such a
thing is a positive 1-9 season, the Bobcats could have been it.
They had a chance to win eight games last season (winning one) - but
turnovers were costly.
This season the Bobcats have won the close games - putting
themselves in a position to win late. Last Friday the Bobcats
and Eagles were tied with 1:48 remaining when St. James quarterback
Will Martin pitched the ball on an option over Matt Dean's head.
The Bobcat's David Brownlee picked up the errand pitch and took it
in 3 yards for a touchdown and a 14-0 lead.
Opp won four games in the final minutes this season - game winning
drive over Luverne, winning field goal against WS Neal, last play
touchdown pass against Ashford, and the defensive touchdown against
St. James.
Chris Carlton sealed the victory for the Bobcats with an
interception on St. James final try at the Opp 40 yard line.
The Bobcats took a knee to run the clock out for two plays and held
on for their first playoff trip in three seasons.
Inside linebacker Chris Carlton had 19 tackles, David Brownlee
added 6 tackles along with Dustin Kilcrease's 11 tackles and Jevaunn
Reed with 9 tackles.
Nicky Archie blocked an Eagles' punt and added 5 tackles as the Bobcats
allowed only 161 yards total offense (42 passing) in the victory.
Bobcat senior Donald Jones had 69 yards on the night including two long
runs in the final moments of the game before the fumble by St. James.
St. James held the Bobcats and forced a punt giving the Eagles the ball
with 1:47 remaining at the 18 yard line.
The Bobcats will now travel to Elba to face the Tigers in a
non-region regular season ending matchup. Both teams are
playoff bound. Elba (3A region2) will travel to Winfield (8-1,
6-1) while Opp has the duty of knocking off 4A power
Central-Tuscaloosa (9-0, 7-0).
MUST WIN
 The
Bobcats are in a strange place - a must win for a playoff spot in
the Alabama High School Athletic Association's football playoffs.
For the past two season the Bobcats have managed only two (2) wins
against eighteen (18) losses. In stepped Jack Whigham before
last season to help turn the program around and in one year the
Bobcats are now 5-3 and an opportunity to make the "post season".
A win over the St. James Trojans this Friday would propel the
Bobcats into round one, where they would likely face
Central-Tuscaloosa.
Trinity Pics
Opp Believes. The Bobcats believe if they have the ball in the
final moments of any game they have a chance to win. Against
Florala and trailing 7-0 - the Bobcats came from behind to tie the
game that ended in 7-7 tie. With no overtime in a jamboree,
the Bobcats gained a lot of confidence from that game. It
carried over into the season opener against the 2A Tigers, trailing
Luverne the Bobcats scored late to win 18-17 and last week against
WS Neal -- the Bobcats kicks a field goal to pull out a 16-14
victory.
Friday night the Bobcats needed to have another come back to tie or
win a big region game against the Ashford Yellow Jackets. Cody
Hall engineered the final drive that culminated on a 22-yard
touchdown pass to Albert Wilson with only six seconds remaining.
The Bobcats still didn't have the win - only tying the score at
21-21.
Hunter Jones was called on again to assist the Bobcats and added a
pressure packed PAT to give the Bobcats another home victory with a
22-21 score.
If the excitement of the comeback wasn't
enough - add onto the
attempt the pressure of fourth down and seven at the twenty two as
Hall found Wilson for the tying touchdown.
Ashford had built a lead on Opp's homecoming behind the rushing of
Michael Ray who had one touchdown on the night with 106 yards
rushing. Charlton Pope found Matt Steele for a 22 yard TD pass
of his own and Jamichael Shepard gave Ashford the 21-15 lead before
Hall took the Opp fans on another wild trip.
Defense continues to step up for the Bobcats as Wilson added a long
interception return for a touchdown that followed Josh Scarbrough's
TD run and two-point conversion.
Opp moves to 4-2 on the season and 2-2 in the region. That
record matches the Ashford Yellow Jackets who fall to 2-2 in region
play and 3-3 overall. .
Bobcats - Yellow Jackets - PREVIEW
Opp 16, WS Neal 14
Field goals worked in one CoCo teams favor as the Opp Bobcats defeated the
Eagles 16,14 driving 75 yards to set up the 20 yard shot. The
Bobcats lead 13-6 at half, but the Eagles scored in the second half to
take the lead 14-13 and looked like they could hold on, but as the Bobcats
have proved twice they can drive the length of the field - this time to
setup a winning field goal.
Hunter Jones hit a 24 yard field goal with 5:08 left and the defense held
on for the win. Josh Scarbrough had a 3-yd run and Albert Wilson
returned a fumble 28 yards for the 3-2 Bobcats.
Eagles / Bobcats @ similar spots
Neal and Opp took a loss in their regions last Friday as the
Bobcats fell to Abbeville and the Eagles were grounded by 4A #5
Thomasville, 42-20. Neal and
Opp have identical overall and region records (2-2; 1-2).
Neal is no stranger to Opp head coach Jack Whigham who played
the Eagles every season as a heat rivalry game when he was an
assistant at TR Miller. Miller is facing Straughn in
Brewton on Friday night as well.
"In my opinion, Opp is a much improved football team that the
team we played last year" said Neal head coach Blaine Hathcock.
Hathcock is right as the Bobcats are rebuilding under Whigham
and will challenge for the playoffs in the second half of the
season, just as WS Neal will.
Cody hall leads the Bobcats against a team that defeated Opp
last season and went on to turn the year around, defeating cross
town rival TR Miller and making the playoffs.
Hathcock told sports writer Adam Robinson that "so
far, we are a mirror image as we were last year - we are
2-2 and 1-2 in the region just like last year. We need to
emphasize to our players that we are in the exact same situation
as last year and we just need to take one game at a time.
Offensively we have run the ball well, and our offensive line
has played well. On defense we have got some good play with
Akeem Green.”
Game time is 7:00 PM in East Brewton
Getting Back on Track
Opp falls to 1-2 in region 2, 4A and holds their own playoff
future in their hands. Week five is a trip to 4A region 1
WS Neal followed by a four game track through their own region
and hopes of a playoff birth.
Up first is Ashford on October 5th (Homecoming) followed by
Bullock County, Trinity and St. James. If the Bobcats win
out their games they would easily with a playoff birth and could
slide as high as third.
The Bobcats are still a young team and rebuilding for the
future, but after winning two straight to start the season - fan
expectation jumped. The Bobcats are still a good team and
lost two games to exception 4A teams in Andalusia and Daleville.
Daleville
34, Opp 19
Turnovers and special teams play were
the story as Jonas Randolph was the show for Daleville.
Scoring on a 69 yard punt and runs of 52, 60, and 4 yards.
Cody Hall tried to bring Opp back into the game hitting Albert
Wilson on a 77-yd TD pass, but the Warhawks were to much for the
visiting Bobcats.
Opp drops to 1-2 in the region and 2-2
for the season. The Bobcats face WS Neal in non-region
play for week 5.
Andalusia 35, Opp 0
 Opp
turned the ball over the first four times they touched the ball - leading
to 21 first quarter points for the Bulldogs who roll to a 35-0 win.
Andalusia moves to 2-0 in the region tied with Trinity, while the Bobcats
fall to 1-1. A packed house watched as the Bobcats self destructed
and Andalusia capitalize time after time.
Pictures from Friday
2-0
The Opp Bobcats have now equaled their TWO year
total after just TWO games and are now TWO and oooohhhhhh in Two Thousand
and Seven. The Defense scored TWO touchdowns and the offense
scored TWO touchdowns - Do you see a pattern? Now the
team prepares for region game - you guessed it -- number TW O
- Andalusia.
Coach Whigham although excited about the win -
still believes the team has a lot of work to do "we're still not a good
football team yet... - although the defense played a great game there is a
lot of work yet to do... we're just not that good".
Part of you wants to believe Coach Whigham, but
as fans were walking out of the stadium there were smiles on their faces
for the first time in a long time. "Man this feels good" exclaimed
one excited fan after the Bobcats finished off Alabama Christian 28-0.
Opp played mostly JV players in the second half
and almost entirely ninth graders as the fourth quarter counted down.
The first team was concerned about the shutout being pitched by the
defense, after a couple passes from ACA. However a turnover stopped
a drive and put the offense on the field to end the game.
It is hard not to start thinking about next week
- Andalusia vs. Opp - one of the top five rivalries in high school
football (according to one sports outlet). While Opp was winning -
Andalusia was finishing off St. James 35-14.
You could almost feel the heads from each
stadium turning to face the other city with anticipation of next weeks
contest. Not only is it Andalusia / Opp - it is also for the region
lead. Although Opp played well - Andalusia has to still be a
favorite to win the game. But more on that next week.. .right now -
enjoy the moment - 28-0; 2-0 -- Opp fans still know there's a long road
ahead, but right now the road feels paved.
1-0
The Opp Bobcats stunned every one, but
themselves opening week with a 19-18 come from behind victory over the
Luverne Tigers. The Bobcats score with 3 minutes remaining after a
73 yard drive.
Opp opens region play against Alabama Christian
- Friday, Sept 7.
4A
Opp gets victory
7 UP
After the game fans of both
teams felt their team had the chances to win the game and should have.
"If we don't drop so many passe s
- [Opp] has one maybe two touchdowns" said one Bobcat fan after
the game. "We played better than I thought we would - there was a
lot of intensity - [Florala] has a lot of talent for a 1A school".
On the other side of the field - some Florala
fans were disappointed as well - "I just don't know, it's early - but I
think we missed a couple chances to score - and our secondary had some
blow coverage early" said a Wildcat fan - "But it was a preseason game".
Both fans were right in their comments and
assumptions - Opp did drop several passes on a wet field that was soaked
with 3 hours of rain and against a very good secondary. The Wildcats
did get confused in their coverage alignment early, but corrected problems
and created a couple of coverage sacks on Senior quarterback Cody Hall.
Hall played an exceptional game - and was generally spot on with passes,
but did have several dropped.
 The
running game still has some work to be developed for the Bobcats but was much
improved from last season. Junior Deontay
Green ran the ball well, but it was sophomore Josh Scarbrough who kept the
Wildcats off guard running from the fullback position.
Opp used their bench well and will be a strength
over the season and as figured wore down the Wildcats at the end of the
game. "Our players were spent" said Arlton Hudson of Florala "We
playe d
well and didn't have one player cramp up, but [Opp] just had too many
players to stay fresh".
Both coaches were complimentary of the other's
team - "they are as good as I thought" said Whigham about Florala
"[Florala] could have some of the best talent we face all year".
"[Opp] has improved - their a real physical team" said Hudson "I know they
play some tough teams coming up, but I think [the Bobcats] are going to
surprise a lot of folks this season."
Both coaches also claimed m oral
victories in the game that ended in a 7-7 tie as Cody Hall found Albert
Wilson in the corner of the end zone with 2:27 left. The Bobcats
came back and converted a 4th and goal with the ball on the 17 yard line.
"Last year I'm not sure we pull that off" said Opp assistant Michael
Cassady "I'm really proud of our pre-season performance".
The Bobcats' Green scored earlier, but a
holding call nullified a 9 yard TD run with 3:50 left. Another run
and incomplete pass brought up the touchdown pass.
Next week both teams kick off the regular season
with difficult games - Opp host Luverne and 3A Headland visits Florala.
Pictures
Listen to Archived game
Playoff bound?
You probably won't need to make hotel
reservations for Birmingham, but the Bobcats have made a turn for the
better and should begin their move out of the bottom of region two in
2007. Coach Whigham has the Bobcats believing in themselves as
young men and the next step is believing in themselves as football
players.
2007 Preview
Roster
Coaching Staff
Schedule
Pictures from
Practice (08-20)
2007 Expectations High
The Bobcats' Black and Gold spring game seems
decades away, but after a solid performance on both sides of the ball -
players begin to believe in the plan that head football coach
 Jack
Whigham has established. The players left the field - some running -
and jumped into the off-season weight program with both feet.
So successful was the turnout and dedication
by the players even the coaches are fired up. "This is the best
turnout of an off-season program I've seen at Opp" says 10-year assistant
and head basketball coach Michael Cassidy.
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Whigham has established
a precedent for players... "If you want to play [at Opp] you have to
attend spring practice and participate in summer workouts." said
Whigham. Players that miss too many workouts, either make them up,
or will be held out from playing. 
