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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

VINCENT – Trailing 28-0 to the Tuscaloosa Academy Knights at halftime, the Vincent Yellow Jackets could have easily phoned it in for the last 24 minutes of their undefeated regional battle on Oct. 4.

However, the Jackets flipped a switch coming out of the break, outscoring the No. 4 team in Class 2A 21-7 in the second half.

While the effort wouldn’t flip the result in the 35-21 loss at Vincent Middle High School, Vincent coach Lucas Weatherford was proud of his team’s fight in the third and fourth quarters of their first loss of the 2024 campaign.

“I’m proud of how our guys fought in the second half,” Weatherford said. “We could have laid down and just taken it. We didn’t. We fought. We had a chance.”

After Vincent elected to put its stingy defense on the field to start the game, Tuscaloosa Academy went right to work on offense.

The Knights used a string of three straight first downs to get into plus territory before two runs finished the job, the second coming inside the 10-yard line to make the score 7-0 with 7:27 left in the first.

Vincent looked to have a spark in response with a return to the Jackets 38-yard line and a Jayden Roberts run across midfield. The Jackets then converted a third-down, but a missed catch in coverage brought on the field goal unit, which missed a 37-yard try.

Tuscaloosa Academy showed its explosiveness on the ensuing drive with a deep shot from Preston Lancaster to Kena Rego on the second play of the series, doubling the lead to 14-0 with 16 seconds left in the first.

Penalties killed Vincent over the next two drives. After Aiden Gasaway reached the 35-yard line, a personal foul backed up the Jackets and forced them to throw a prayer on fourth down that was picked off near the end zone.

Then, on the Knights’ next drive, a dead-ball personal foul and a pass interference all set up a 19-yard passing touchdown. Vincent did block the extra point but sat in a 20-0 hole with 2:21 left in the half.

A promising Jackets drive got killed by another interception, and Tuscaloosa Academy capitalized before the half.

Using the short field, the Knights scored from just outside the 10 with 10 seconds left. They were backed up on the 2-point try off a penalty but still scored, leaving the halftime score at 28-0.

That was where everything flipped for Vincent.

Weatherford did say he told the players to go out and play for the school, but he said his veteran leaders did much of his work for him.

“They rallied themselves, and that’s what good teams do,” Weatherford said. “The coaching’s very insignificant sometimes when you’ve got good leaders.”

Vincent embarked on its best drive to that point as Fields and Landon Archer connected for three first-down completions, including one on fourth down to the 31-yard line.

Fields finished 13-for-21 for 200 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions and had 14 carries for 43 yards. Archer was his top target with 184 yards and a score. On the ground, Roberts took 21 carries for 91 yards and Gasaway had 10 carries for 33 yards and a touchdown.

Zahmir McMillian finished off the drive with an 11-yard touchdown to put the Jackets on the board, leaving them down 28-7 with 5:38 left in the third.

Tuscaloosa Academy responded with its lone score of the half, a wide-open 45-yard touchdown pass after Lancaster battled through Vincent’s third down pressure on the play before.

That 35-7 scoreline was short lived. Mere seconds later, Fields unleashed a deep pass to Archer, who ran it in for the 72-yard touchdown with 3:34 left in the third, making the score 35-14.

The Jackets then forced the Knights to punt for the first time all night, which kept the momentum going.

Vincent made multiple big plays in late-down situations during the drive, including a juggling fourth-down catch by Archer to start the fourth quarter, a third-down conversion by Archer and a fourth-down run past the sticks by Lane Mims.

Two plays after Mims kept the drive alive, Aiden Gasaway found paydirt from a yard out with 7:57 left, which made the final score 35-21.

After the game, Weatherford said the second-half comeback showed the team’s fighting spirit and true character.

He hopes that moments like this not only propel the team this season but teach valuable life lessons that his players can use down the road.

“We want to win games and we want to win them all, but at the end of the day, I care more about where those kids are in ten years and what kind of fathers and husbands they are,” Weatherford said. “I think people don’t see it sometimes, but moments like that, where you fight in a football game, when you’re down, builds that character and then builds that resiliency.”

Vincent will now look to bounce back on the road at 2-4 Aliceville on Oct. 11 at 7 p.m.