Bulldogs lock down region’s number two spot with win over St. Jude

WADLEY – The Wadley Bulldogs secured the number two playoff seed from Class 1A, Region 3 with a strong 27-7 homecoming win over St. Jude Friday night.

Tailback Terrance Wilkes rushed for 125 yards and two touchdowns on 25 carries to pace the Bulldogs’ offense, and a patchwork defense came up big against an athletic St. Jude squad.

The Pirates marched 72 yards on five plays on the game’s opening drive and took a 7-0 lead on a 32-yard run by quarterback Hakeem Perkins with 10:20 left in the first quarter.

But the Bulldogs battled back to take the lead before halftime and the defense made sure that seven points would be all the Pirates would get.

“Truthfully, St. Jude was very talented football team,” said Wadley head coach Randy Sparks. “They had more speed than anybody we’ve played this year. Early in the game that speed looked like it was going to be too much for us. But we settled down and were able to keep them contained for the most part.”

Wilkes was once again the focus of a Wadley opponent’s defense as St. Jude stacked the line of scrimmage with eight and nine players most of the night. Sparks used that to his advantage, however, as he employed Wilkes as a decoy and got some of his other ball carriers the ball in crucial situations.

“The St. Jude defense was really keying on Terrance. We came back with some counter plays where we faked the ball to Terrance and gave it to (fullback) Timothy (Marable),” Sparks said. “Even though Terrance still carried the ball the majority of the time, we tried to use some counters, some misdirection and bootlegs to offset their quickness and their aggressiveness.”

It worked twice as Marable scored the Bulldogs’ first touchdown on just such a play. It was a 17-yard run that cut the St. Jude lead to 7-6 with 2:02 left in the first quarter. Later, with Wadley leading 20-7, Sparks sent quarterback Dalton Jones on a bootleg after a faked handoff to Wilkes. Jones curled around and raced 15 yards into the end zone for the game’s final touchdown.

A battered defense that played the majority of the game without three of their four starting linebackers managed to keep the Pirates at bay. They rushed for just 78 yards all night and completed 14 of 35 passes for 162 yards, but tossed two interceptions.

“They did complete some passes,” said Sparks. “But when you throw 35 times you’re going to complete some. And 14 of 35 is most likely to our advantage overall.”

Wilkes scored on runs of three and four yards, respectively, in the second quarter as Wadley built a 20-7 halftime lead.

The win, combined with Billingsley’s 28-6 upset of Verbena, allowed Wadley to lock up second place in their region. Even if Maplesville loses this week to Verbena the Bulldogs would still finish second because of the head-to-head tiebreaker with region champion Maplesville.

Wadley will close out their region slate on the road against a winless Isabella team.