On Friday night in Cooper Stadium, UMS-Wright used an early turnover to take a 3-0 lead and never looked back, shutting out the Wildcats 24-0.  The Bulldogs still find themselves in a 3-way tie for 3rd place as UMS-Wright, B. C. Rain and Faith Academy are all 4-2 in Region play. Vigor is 5-2 and travels to Gulf Shores this week.  Of these 4 teams, only 3 will make the playoffs in a balanced and competitive Region 1.  
 
Ultimately, UMS-Wright controls its own fate for a spot in the playoffs and could still lock up the #2 seed and a first round home playoff game by winning their final two regular season games.  This week, the Bulldogs and Rams square off at Faith. The loser of this game will likely drop to 5th in the Region entering the final week of the season.  Citronelle and Williamson were both eliminated from the playoff hunt with last week's losses.
 
Region 1 Scores from 10/20
 
UMS-Wright 24 - Citronelle 0
 
Vigor 46 - Elberta 7
 
B.C Rain 39 - Leflore 7
 
Faith Academy 29 - Williamson 0
 
Gulf Shores - BYE



Region 1 Standings
 

TEAM	RECORD
GULF SHORES	6-0
VIGOR	5-2
FAITH ACADEMY	4-2
B. C. RAIN	4-2
UMS-WRIGHT	4-2
CITRONELLE	2-4
WILLIAMSON	2-5
ELBERTA	1-5
LEFLORE	0-6

 
Region 1 Schedule for 10/27
 
UMS-Wright at Faith Academy
 
Vigor at Gulf Shores
 
Elberta at B. C. Rain
 
Citronelle at Leflore
 
Williamson - BYE
 
Region 1 Games Remaining for top 5 teams:
 
Gulf Shores: Vigor, B.C. Rain
 
Vigor: at Gulf Shores
 
Faith Academy: UMS-W, at Leflore
 
B.C. Rain: Elberta, at Gulf Shores
 
UMS-Wright: at Faith Academy, at Williamson




Game Recap
 
    UMS-Wright intercepted a pass on Citronelle's first possession and turned it into 3 points after Kingston Phan's 32 yard field goal.  Jake Jaye gave the Bulldogs a 10-0 lead at the half, and two second half touchdown runs from Joe Lott gave the Bulldogs a 24-0 win.  
    The Bulldog defense earned their first shutout since September of 2022, holding Citronelle to 88 yards of offense - an average of 2 yards per play - and 0 for 9 on third downs. 
 
1st Quarter
    Citronelle took the opening kickoff and William Tanner intercepted a pass to give the Bulldogs great field position.  Joe Lott completed a pass to Ty Yance for 13 yards but the offense couldn't get another first down.  Kingston Phan's 32 yard field goal put the Bulldogs up 3-0.
    On the Wildcats next possession, Caplyn Reed got a tackle for loss on 2nd down that led to a 3 & out punt.  The Bulldog offense was 3 & out and punted it back to Citronelle.
    The Wildcats picked up a first down on a 33 yard pass completion, but fumbled the ball for a 7 yard loss on the next play.  On 4th and 4, Mac McGinley sacked the QB to force a turnover on downs.
    The Bulldogs started at their own 33 and picked up several first downs on runs from Joe Lott to move the ball into the red zone.  The drive ended deep in Citronelle territory when UMS-Wright failed to convert a 4th & 1.
 
End 1^st Quarter
 
UMS-W          3
Citronelle        0




2^nd Quarter
    Citronelle went 3 & out again after a pre-snap penalty put them behind the chains.  UMS-Wright started at their own 38-yard line, and Jake Jaye ripped off an 11-yard first down run.  Lott connected with Denton Elliott for a 36 yard completion before picking up another 9 yards on the ground himself.  Jake Jaye punched it into the end zone from 5 yards out to give the Bulldogs a 10-0 lead.
    On the ensuing possession, Citronelle picked up a first down on a 5 yard screen pass, and then connected on a big pass play that was called back for a downfield blindside block. After incompletions on 2nd and 3rd downs, the Wildcats punt was downed on the UMS-W 6-yard line. Lott picked up one first down on a 7-yard gain, but the Bulldogs punted.
    On the final series of the half, Citronelle completed a 9-yard pass on 4th & 7, but Andrew Cook's sack on the final play of the half sent the Bulldogs to the locker room with a 10-0 lead.
 
Halftime
 
UMS-W          10
Citronelle        0
 
3^rd Quarter
 
    The Bulldogs received the second half kickoff. Lott gained another 1st down on an explosive play that put UMS-W in plus territory.  On 3rd and 8, Lott's pass to Denton Elliott was incomplete and the Bulldogs punted the ball inside the 20.
    Citronelle completed a 12-yard pass to open the drive, but Charlie Jeffrey's pass break up on 3rd and 12 forced another punt for the Wildcats.
    The Bulldogs went 3 and out after a penalty and a dropped pass killed the possession.  Citronelle followed with their own 3 & out, and the center snapped the ball over the punter's head.  He was able to recover the ball and punt it out of the back of the endzone to the 9-yard line. 
           
End 3rd Quarter 
UMS-W          10
Citronelle        0
 
4th Quarter
    UMS-W was hit with a personal foul which set up a 1st and Goal from the 24-yard line.  Jaye ripped off a 16-yard run followed by an 8 yard run from Denton Elliott on 2nd down.  Joe Lott snuck it in from 1 yard out to give the Bulldogs a 17-0 lead. 
    After a Bulldog kickoff went out of bounds, Citronelle started at their own 26 but couldn't get anything going and punted it back to the Bulldogs.
    UMS-Wright put the game away with a 55 yard drive.  Lott hit Thomas Portacci for a 28 yard gain, then Lott and Jaye did the rest of the work on the ground finishing with another 1 yard sneak from Joe Lott for the TD.
    The Bulldog defense kept the shutout intact when David Lott broke up a 3rd and 23 pass attempt, allowing the UMS-W offense to run out the clock.
 
           
Final
 
UMS-W          24
Citronelle        0
 
 
Plays of the Game
 
Defense: On the Wildcats second play from scrimmage, Jeff Holston deflected a pass attempt straight up into the air, and William Tanner got under the ball for the interception. The Bulldogs would turn that into 3 points and lead the rest of the game.
 
Offense: Joe Lott's 2nd quarter 36-yard completion to Denton Elliott put the Bulldogs into the red zone and set up Jake Jaye's 5 yard touchdown run two plays later to put UMS-W ahead by two scores.
 
Team Totals
 
Total Plays
UMS-W          57
Citronelle        44
 
Total Yards
 
UMS-W          299
Citronelle        88
 
Rushing Yards
 
UMS-W          218
Citronelle        18
 
Passing Yards
 
UMS-W          81
Citronelle        70
 
First Downs
 
UMS-W          13
Citronelle        5
 
Third Downs
 
UMS-W          6-13  (46%)
Citronelle        0-9    (0%)
 
Turnovers
 
UMS-W          0
Citronelle        1
 
Penalties         
 
UMS-W          6 for 60 yards
Citronelle        5 for 42 yards



Stat Leaders
 
Rushing
 Jake Jay: 17 Carries - 100 yds - TD
Joe Lott: 18 Carries - 89 yds - 2 TD
James Hollon: 5 Carries - 14 yds
Denton Elliott: 2 Carries - 12 yds
 
Passing
Joe Lott: 3 for 7 - 81 yds 
 
 
Receiving
Denton Elliott: 1 reception - 37 yds 
Thomas Portacci: 1 reception - 28 yds
Ty Yance: 1 reception - 16 yds 
 
Defense
Jeff Holston: 6 tackles
Caplyn Reed: 8 tackles - TFL
C. J. Stewart: 9 tackles
Perry Hand: 12 tackles - 2 TFL
Mac McGinley: 5 tackles - Sack
William Tanner: 2 tackles - Interception
 
 
Special Teams
Kingston Phan: 3 for 3 PATs / 1 for 1 FG (32 yards)
William Taylor: 2 punts - 32 yd Avg.
Joe Lott: 2 punt - 24 yd Avg. - 1 inside 20
 
 
From the Coaches
 
Coach Dean on the Offense: 
It was a great night for the last regular season game at UMS-Wright this past Friday.  I thought we played our best game of the season to this point offensively.  We were able to run gap schemes and outside zone schemes.  The kids prepared throughout the week, and it showed with the performance Friday night.  Liston Peterson played really well up front, along with Jack Otts.  Joe Lott had a good night throwing the ball, and had 2 TD's rushing on QB sneaks, with a great push from Pierce Dean.  Jake Jaye had several good runs, and saw the cutback lanes better than he has all season.  Ty Yance is continuing to get open, and had another good night blocking on the edge.  Jeff Holston had several good blocks out of our bunch set as well.  Hopefully the momentum will carry over to this week.  We are taking it one game at a time to make this playoff push, and fighting for the 2 seed.



Coach Koziol on the Defense:
           
Friday night's win was one of our best outings of the season.  Citronelle had a big O-line, some dynamic skill players and an athletic QB.  The defense started fast with William Tanner's interception and played really solid the rest of the night.  
I thought the D-line did a good job of eating up blocks in the run game, and they also affected the QB in their passing game.  The linebackers fit the run well also and limited Citronelle to less than 70 rushing yards.  I thought Perry Hand had his best game of the season and was very active.  Caplyn Reed and Jeff Holston were in position all night and did a nice job with their leverage and tackling in space.
            The secondary played well also.  They are working hard to improve every day and seem to be growing in confidence.  I believe the game is slowing down for them and they are seeing route concepts better, reacting quicker, and competing for the football.
 
 
Next Up:
The Bulldogs travel to Faith Academy on Friday night.