Prep roundup
- Updated: August 22, 2025
Jacksonville’s Sullivan, White Plains’ Smith, Saks’ Felder victorious in openers with new teams.
THURSDAY, Aug. 21
Spring Garden 44, Sand Rock 28
Pineville Christian at Jacksonville Christian, canceled.
FRIDAY, Aug. 22
Central-Clay 26, Handley 3, FINAL
Piedmont 24, Cherokee County 8, FINAL
Pierce County (Ga.) 20, Coosa Christian 7, FINAL
Gaylesville 30, Donoho 6, FINAL
Glencoe 7, Southeastern 0, FINAL
Hope Christian 28, Valliant Cross 18, FINAL
Jacksonville 45, Etowah 7, FINAL
Shelby County 27, Lincoln 14, FINAL
New Hope 43, Ohatchee 32, FINAL
Central-Carrollton 37, Oxford 34, FINAL
Pleasant Valley 34, West End-Walnut Grove 0, FINAL
Randolph County 44, Woodland 21, FINAL
Saks 48, Horseshoe Bend 42, FINAL
Guntersville 31, Southside 14, FINAL
White Plains 23, Talladega 13, FINAL
Wadley 46, B.B. Comer 0, FINAL
Oak Grove 40, Weaver 3, FINAL
Jamboree
Westbrook Christian at Hokes Bluff
Open: Alexandria, Anniston, Cleburne County, Ranburne.
By East Alabama Sports Today
The coaching carousel that marked this past offseason stopped Friday with a lot of happy coaches.
Jacksonville’s Jeremy Sullivan, White Plains’ Clint Smith and Saks’ Shannon Felder came away victorious in their first games with their new teams.
Jacksonville beat visiting Etowah 45-7, White Plains beat visiting Talladega 23-13, and Saks beat visiting Horseshoe Bend 48-42.
Hope Christian’s Chris Stone also came away victorious, with the Saints beating visiting Valliant Cross 28-18 in their first-ever varsity game, and Glencoe won Piedmont graduate Bayley Blanchard’s head coaching debut 7-0 over Southeastern.
The chain of coaching changes after last season started when Ohatchee’s Chris Findley followed wife Lauren’s career move from Jacksonville State University to Texas Wesleyan. Blake Jennings left White Plains after two seasons as the Wildcats’ head coach to return to Ohatchee, where he previously served as an assistant coach.
White Plains hired Smith away from Jacksonville, and Jacksonville hired Sullivan, who hired Alphonso Freeney away from Saks.
Saks hired Felder.
Jennings’ Ohatchee team, which graduated 16 seniors and saw other key players transfer, lost its opener while playing up in class at New Hope, 43-32.
“The kids fought their tale off,” Jennings said. “They could have laid down right out of the half. They returned the opening kickoff back of the second half for a TD. Put us down 29-12. We fought back and made it 29-20.
“Got an interception from Parker Crump that set us up and got stopped on a fourth down on the 20 going in. That changed the game. First kickoff of each half really was our demise.”
Smith got vengeance, of sorts. He won his openers at Trinity Christian and Jacksonville but lost his Saks opener to Talladega.
“Awesome atmosphere,” Smith said about Friday’s game. “The community really showed up, and our student section was amazing.
“Defensively, we played really well against an athletic Talladega team. Lots of things to improve on but great to be 1-0.”
Sullivan is now 3-0 in openers at new schools, having won his first games at Citronelle, Boaz and Jacksonville.
“Proud of how our kids played,” Sullivan said Friday. “Thought the assistant coaches did a great job of preparing them and working together during the game,..
“It was a fun night.”
Saks, a Class 3A team, technically played down against 2A Horseshoe Bend but did it with 1A numbers. The Wildcats entered the season with 18 varsity players but outlasted the Generals.
“I was happy for the boys,” Felder said. “They got to see some reward from their hard work. As hard as they played and as well as they played, it would’ve been tough to come away with a loss.”
PLEASANT VALLEY 34, WEST END-WALNUT GROVE 0: Braxton Salster hit on 13 of 19 passes for 211 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for 116 yards and two scores.
His touchdown runs covered 15, two and 36 yards. He threw a 36-yard touchdown pass to Nic Acker and a 30-yard touchdown pass to Jake Barnwell.
Caden Vick rushed for 50 yards and accounted for 63 total yards, and Jaden Sparks had an 8-yard touchdown run among his 33 total yards.
Cooper Dougal caught five passes for 94 yards.
Pleasant Valley gave up 85 total yards and three first downs, no first downs in the second half. Acker, Jackson Acker and Brayden Pappa each had a team-high five tackles.
Dougal had an interception. Izayah Nevens and J.D. Denham each forced a fumble, and Cody George recovered a fumble.
WHITE PLAINS 23, TALLADEGA 13: Bruce Downey hit field goals of 36, 39 and 26 yards, and Bryson Cheatwood caught a 32-yard touchdown pass from Crew Martin as White Plains opened with a victory over Talladega for the second year in a row.
Colby Jones recovered a fumble and returned it 60 yards for a touchdown.
CENTRAL-CARROLLTON 37, OXFORD 34: J.R. Harris’ 5-yard touchdown pass to Jonaz Walton with 21.4 seconds to play made the difference.
Oxford got touchdown runs of one, 10 and 22 yards from Caleb Wynn, and Maddox Mims completed a 40-yards touchdown pass to Jay’lin Taylor.
NEW HOPE 43, OHATCHEE 32: Jayden Siegler rushed for 139 yards and two touchdowns on 17 carries to lead Ohatchee, which played yet another high scoring game against New Hope on the road.
Ohatchee beat New Hope 76-71 a year ago at Ohatchee.
Quarterback Gus Hunter added 132 rushing yards and two touchdowns, and Brayden Bennett added 43 yards and one touchdown run.
Carson Sanders threw a 22-yard touchdown pass to Hunter.
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