There are many rivalries that people in the South get excited for, but for South Mobile County there is nothing that has more bragging rights than the Grand Bay Tigers verses Alba Sharks rivalry. Since the combination of the two high schools back in 1998 there has not been a consistent scheduling of the two teams until two years ago when the rivalry kicked back into high gear when an astounding crowd filled the Alba Middle School football field. Again this was the location for the 2016 Grand Bay verses Alba game.
Homecoming festivities were on schedule as a crowd filled the stadium on a great weather evening right at dusk. The game kicked off at 6:00 p.m. and both teams were geared up and ready to play. Alba got off to a quick start on the ground with a quick 1st down on 3 plays and then went to the air after a couple of penalties which was intercepted by Sheldon Cannon of the Tigers. Grand Bay then quickly moved the ball 58 down the field through the air and on the ground to put the first score on the board with a 2-yard run by Hayden Brocato as well as converting the 2-point conversion. From there Alba dominated the ground game and almost topped off a long drive with a 26 yard touchdown run by Sheldon Russ. The touchdown was called back because of a block in the back penalty and after a couple pass and run plays Alba would turn the ball over on downs.
At halftime the score was still locked 8-0 but early in the 3rd Grand Bay recovered a fumble and Jordan Hollingworth would complete a 34-yard pass to Brocato for a touchdown which would be negated by a holding penalty. After a sack and another penalty Grand Bay would punt and Alba would take over going into the 4th quarter. Alba would be plagued with fumbles in the 2nd half turning the ball over twice by fumbles, but strong running led by Dylan Rowell and Sheldon Russ of the Sharks late in the 4th Quarter drove the ball 50 yards down to the 2.5 yard line expecting to tie things up. An errant snap into the backfield by for a 12 yard loss and a false start penalty would stop the drive.
In the end Grand Bay was victorious over Alba 8-0. Alba led on the ground with 156 yards rushing to Grand Bay’s 89, but the Tigers led the skies with 38 passing yards to the Sharks’ 1. Dylan Rowell (Alba) was the leading rusher of the game with 70 yards rushing averaging 3.7 yards per rush. On the other side of the ball Kierstan Rogers led the Sharks with 5.5 tackles and Colby Shockley led the Tigers with 5 with Taurean Richardson right behind him with 4 tackles.
After the game both teams met out at the 50 yard line and Coach Jody Foster from Alba spoke to both teams and challenged them to be the change makers for the future and encouraged them on what is to come as they come together as Hurricanes.
View more pictures of the Homecoming Night on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.873505366084450.1073741866.122013107900350&type=1&l=176cf248ba
One Comment
Hayden Brocato
we had more than 38 passing the one that led to my TD and the one that i recieved in the flats