Oxford advances
- Updated: November 7, 2022
Lady Jackets gain a measure of revenge from last year by knocking off Hewitt-Trussville in flag football quarterfinals
By East Alabama Sports Today
TRUSSVILLE – Oxford scored two touchdowns in the first half and made it stand with stout defense in the second, beating Hewitt-Trussville 14-0 in AHSAA Flag Football Tournament quarterfinals Monday, knocking out the team that put it out in the semifinals last year.
The Lady Jackets (18-3) will play the winner of Tuesday’s Vestavia-Moody game in the state semifinals on a date to be determined. If they host, they are hoping to play next Monday or Saturday.
Auburn will play Hoover in the other semifinal. The championship game is Nov. 30 in Auburn’s Jordan-Hare Stadium.
“That was maybe the elephant in the room on the ride over,” Oxford coach Wes Brooks said of the matchup memory. “And I think that had a lot to do with our aggressiveness, wanting something good to happen early for us.
“Last year at this point we were like win each snap, take a deep breath. Tonight I said y’all go out there, have fun and make memories. We were aggressive on offense and we were aggressive on defense, like playing to win instead of like playing not to lose.”
Reagan White scored Oxford’s first touchdown from the 1 after getting the ball down there on a long run and Ashlyn Burns scored the second in the final two minutes of the half on a pass from Gabby Lindsey. Burns and Xai Whitfield scored conversions.
Hewitt came out in the second half with a hurry-up offense, but the Lady Jackets preserved their second shutout of the playoffs with a ball-control offense and three red-zone defensive stops by Chaci Whitfield.
“All in all I thought we played really good,” Brooks said. “All the girls were holding up four (fingers) for ‘Final Four,’ then somebody said, ‘No, we want to be the Final One.’ In a sense you could say we beat the team that beat us out last year, OK we’re satisfied, but you could tell there’s a little bit more.”
Cover photo by Mike Lett/Lett’s Focus Photography
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