SARALAND, Ala. — For the first time in two months, Saraland went into halftime without a comfortable cushion. The Spartans came out of the locker room and made sure it did not last. Saraland beats Auburn 48-34 after a 13-13 halftime tie Thursday night, Oct. 29, at Spartan Stadium, scoring on its first three possessions of the second half to pull away from the Class 6A Tigers and close the regular season with an eighth straight win.
Quarterback Jamison Roberts shook off a rough start to complete 19 of 31 passes for 221 yards and two touchdowns, both to Eddie Turner, and ran for three more scores. Sophomore running back Ayiden Pugh added 153 yards on just 12 carries, and the No. 4-ranked team in Class 5A passed what its players described as a test they needed against the No. 4-ranked team in Class 6A.
“Jamison had another big night,” Saraland coach Jeff Kelly said. “I think he should be a leader in the clubhouse for Mr. Football.”
A rare halftime tie for Saraland
The 13-13 score at intermission stood out against the rest of Saraland’s season. In its previous seven games, the Spartans had led at halftime by scores of 45-3, 35-0, 40-10, 36-8, 50-0, 49-0 and 42-14. Saraland had not trailed in 49 quarters, a streak that dated to its 34-24 loss to Gulf Shores in the second game of the season.
That streak ended two minutes into Thursday’s game. A high snap on a Saraland punt sailed over the head of punter Sye Byrd and came to rest at the Spartans’ 1-yard line. Jaeden King scored from there to give Auburn a 7-0 lead.
Auburn also showed Saraland defensive looks the Spartans had not seen on film. Roberts said Kelly used that to change the mood in the locker room.
“What we had watched on tape, they did none of it,” Roberts said. “And coach said that’s actually them respecting us, them having to change their whole game plan up for us. We took that as respect and adjusted on the fly and started doing what we had to do.”
Kelly was candid that the slow start began with him.
“I wasn’t in a rhythm,” Kelly said. “They were doing a great job of mixing looks and playing a little more man than they’ve shown. I wasn’t putting Jamison in great situations to be successful early on in the game. … We really needed to see the size, the speed, the talent, the caliber of defense they had.”
For most of the first half, the state’s second-highest-scoring offense regardless of classification — Saraland averaged 53 points per game entering the night — looked like the second-best offense on the field. Roberts was sacked three times and tackled for a loss on another play.
Auburn adjusts after losing its starting quarterback
The Tigers had problems of their own. Starting quarterback Cason Myers, an Arkansas commitment, injured his non-throwing shoulder on Auburn’s second series, which left the Tigers without much of a passing attack for the rest of the night.
Backup John David Pate kept Auburn moving with quarterback draws and led the Tigers into the red zone twice in the first half. Both times, Saraland’s defense held and forced field goals by Andrew Fligel, from 43 and 21 yards, that tied the game 13-13 at the break. Pate later left the game late with a wrist injury.
Linebacker Jakari Harris made what may have been the pivotal defensive play of the first half. On third-and-goal from the 1, Harris shot through a gap and stopped Pate for a 2-yard loss, forcing Fligel’s shorter field goal.
“Third-and-goal, we needed a big stop,” said Harris, Saraland’s leading tackler, who finished with 13 tackles and an interception. “I came up and filled the gap and made a big tackle for a loss. Holding them to a field goal was a big momentum shift.”
Auburn coach Keith Etheredge, who has won five state championships in his career, said losing Myers early changed everything about his team’s plan.
“We did some good things,” he said. “We just couldn’t throw the ball, so it changed everything. With Cason going down, it made it really tough.”
Three straight scoring drives open the second half
Kelly said he took a simpler approach after halftime.
“We got in at halftime and we reverted back to day one install stuff, a lot of things that we had put in for this game,” Kelly said. “We weren’t seeing the looks that we expected and that’s a credit to their guys. But our guys made plays.”
He went further during the second half. “I kind of put the call sheet down and said just go play and adjust to what we see,” he said.
The result was three straight touchdown drives of 70, 80 and 65 yards to start the third quarter. Roberts threw touchdown passes of 49 and 11 yards to Turner and scored on an 8-yard run on which he reversed field and scored standing up, giving Saraland a 34-20 lead.
Turner’s 49-yard score came on a post route against a defense that had been playing two deep safeties. He broke away from Auburn defender Ryan Donaldson near the 30 and ran the rest of the way.
“They had a lot of two high (safeties),” Turner said. “We knew that it would be open. I stuck the post and Jamo stuck it in there and I broke a tackle and took it to the house. We knew the receiver room was gonna need a big night.”
Turner finished with eight catches for 128 yards. Roberts also scored on runs of 1 and 24 yards, and Pugh added an 8-yard touchdown run. Chris Cunningham caught four passes for 36 yards and put the game further out of reach with a 35-yard punt return for a touchdown in the fourth quarter.
With the win, Saraland remains perfect in program history when it scores at least 40 points, a record that now stands at 99-0.
Ayiden Pugh runs through Auburn’s defense
Pugh, listed at 5-foot-9 and 155 pounds, gave Saraland a physical running game that wore on the Tigers as the night went on. His 153 yards came on only 12 carries, an average of nearly 13 yards per attempt.
“Ayiden did a good job breaking some tackles and getting a bunch of yards after contact,” Kelly said. “He had some tough runs and our offensive line did a real good job. It wasn’t super complicated in the run game but we found a few things that were working and kind of stayed with them.”
Pugh said he plays with something to prove.
“I love sending messages,” Pugh said. “A lot of people doubt me because of my size but it just fuels me even more and makes me go even more.”
Why Saraland wanted this kind of game
Saraland’s players said a close game was exactly what they needed before the postseason. During the winning streak, many of the Spartans’ starters had not played much past halftime.
“We needed this going into the playoffs,” Turner said. “We’ve been on a tear where the starters haven’t even been playing for two quarters and some change. We needed to really get pushed to our limits to sharpen our sword, as coach Kelly would say.”
Roberts said Auburn’s defense was the best he had seen since the loss to Gulf Shores.
“We definitely needed something like that,” Roberts said. “I haven’t faced a defense that good since (a loss to) Gulf Shores. But we know our identity and I feel like we can compete with any defense in the state.”
Turner said the receiving group has carried on the standard set by former Saraland pass catchers Ryan Coleman-Williams and Deshawn Spencer.
“I feel like we have the best offense in the state,” Turner said. “We can put up points on any defense because we’ve got whatever we need. We’re balanced. We’ve got weapons and we’ve got a great quarterback.”
Etheredge also took issue with the officiating along the line of scrimmage, saying he believed many holding penalties were missed, but he did not use it as an excuse.
“They’re like, ‘We can’t call every one of them’ but you can if it’s holding every time,” Etheredge said. “But that’s no excuse. We got beat. They’ve got a really good football team. We’re gonna go back to the drawing board, work hard and get better.”
Saraland’s season by the numbers
Thursday’s win was the first time during the eight-game winning streak that Saraland scored fewer than 50 points. The Spartans finished the regular season 9-1 and outscored their opponents 521-151.
The win followed a 56-14 rout of Spanish Fort a week earlier, when Roberts, an Oklahoma commitment, accounted for six touchdowns and Saraland clinched the No. 2 seed in Class 5A, Region 1 behind unbeaten Gulf Shores.
- Final: Saraland 48, Auburn 34 (Thursday, Oct. 29)
- Halftime: 13-13
- Saraland record: 9-1, eight straight wins
- Season scoring: Saraland 521, opponents 151
- Jamison Roberts: 19 of 31, 221 yards, 2 TD passes; TD runs of 1, 8 and 24 yards
- Ayiden Pugh: 12 carries, 153 yards, 8-yard TD
- Eddie Turner: 8 catches, 128 yards, TDs of 49 and 11 yards
- Chris Cunningham: 35-yard punt return TD
- Jakari Harris: 13 tackles, interception
- Auburn: Andrew Fligel field goals of 43 and 21 yards; Jaeden King 1-yard TD
What’s next in the playoffs
Saraland opens the Class 5A playoffs at home next week against Pelham, which is 8-2. The Spartans have won six straight playoff openers and are 10-5 all-time in first-round games.
The program has also played in four consecutive state championship games, winning the Class 6A title in 2022. This season, the road to a title ends close to home. All of the Alabama High School Athletic Association’s football championship games will be played Dec. 2-5 at Hancock Whitney Stadium on the University of South Alabama campus in Mobile.
Auburn, which finished the regular season 7-3, receives a first-round bye in the expanded Class 6A playoffs.
“Now we’ve got to hit the reset button and get ready to go play next week,” Kelly said.
