By LIZI ARBOGAST | Alex City Outlook

CALERA – The math was easy heading into Friday night’s game. One team was going home knowing it would go to the playoffs; one team’s postseason hopes would be dashed.

Luckily for the Benjamin Russell faithful, it was the Wildcats who seemed to be firing on all cylinders, especially after an even-keeled first half. Benjamin Russell scored in every way possible, putting two touchdowns in on the ground and another two through the air, scoring a defensive TD and even adding a safety and a field goal en route to a 40-7 victory over the Eagles.

It was the Wildcats’ most convincing win of the season, and it came at a perfect time as they locked up the No. 4 spot in Class 6A Region 3.

“The most impressive thing was what I talked about all week, which was can we come out and sting them right away?” Benjamin Russell coach Kevin Smith said. “The first drive looked sloppy because we had a bad snap and right out of the gate, we were going backwards. But I thought defensively we came right out and played extremely well.”

Although bad snaps did cause the Wildcats (5-4, 2-3) some trouble, it was nothing compared to the difficulties Calera (1-6, 1-4) had on the snaps. At least a handful of snaps went over quarterback Cornelius Brown’s head, causing him to fall on it for negative yardage, and one bad snap was fumbled and recovered by Benjamin Russell’s Deshaun Gonzalez, who took it 10 yards to the house.

“That was brand spanking new, and I couldn’t figure it out,” Calera coach Andrew Zow said. “That normally never happens. Ryan Caver is usually our ace in the hole when it comes to being our center. He’s one of our smaller guys but does an outstanding job technique wise. And of course, our quarterback is 6-foot-5. Ryan snapped it low a couple times then overcompensated by snapping it high a couple times. It turned out to bite us.”

Benjamin Russell went toe to toe with the Eagles for the first quarter but managed to build up a 19-7 lead at halftime thanks to a safety — Pokey Norris tackled Brown in the end zone after yet another bad snap — and a Wilson Hays field goal, both of which happened in the final 40 seconds of the second quarter.

But it was really the third quarter when Benjamin Russell began to assert its dominance. Gonzalez scored his defensive touchdown just 52 seconds into the half, and from there, the Wildcat offense took over.

Keedon Young had a 21-yard touchdown run and Landon Cotney added a rushing touchdown after having two throws for scores in the first half.

“Landon was on fire tonight,” Smith said. “He was hitting everything in stride. Even ones we dropped, he hit them laser right there in the hands. I thought he did an awesome job of getting it out of his hands, and they were sending a lot of pressure too. They did what Selma did to us which was get right up on us and come after us and make us throw it quickly. I thought we handled the pressure well.”

With the loss, Calera was eliminated from the playoffs, making the first time the Eagles will miss the postseason since 2011.

“We haven’t missed the playoffs in years, even before I got here,” said Zow, who is in his third year as head coach. “So not getting in this year really hurts. We just gotta build from it and finish the season off strong.”

Meanwhile, the Wildcats finally got a chance to play some of their younger guys, which can only help moving forward. Most of Benjamin Russell’s starters were taken out of the game by the end of the third quarter, and nearing the end of the game, it was all youngsters taking the field for the Wildcats.

“To me the most impressive thing from this night was when the JV team got in,” Smith said. “A lot of teams think, ‘OK, if they score, it’s fine; they’re supposed to score.’ But our guys said, ‘No, you’re not going to score,’ and they kept them out right there at the end. Whether they had 13 or 7, in the big picture, it probably doesn’t mean anything, but in that locker room, those young guys feel like, ‘Hey, we can play on this field too.’”