Photo: Gadsden City’s C.J. Miller dives for a first down during the Titans’ 35-28 loss to Hewitt-Trussville in high school football on October 15 at GCHS. (Chris McCarthy/Messenger)
Gadsden City’s hopes for its first playoff berth in five years fizzled out on October 15 at Titan Stadium.
With the game tied at 28 after three quarters, Hewitt-Trussville scored the lone touchdown of the fourth period en route to a 35-28 victory in Class 7A, Region 3 action. The loss dropped the Titans (5-4 overall 2-4 in region play) to fifth place in the region and on the wrong end of tiebreakers with Thompson, Hoover, Oak Mountain and Hewitt-Trussville.
Gadsden City led 28-21 at 2:56 the third quarter courtesy of Rodney Johnson’s 85-yard kickoff return for a touchdown and Gabriel Mitchell’s PAT, but the Huskies tied the game two minutes later on Matt Miller’s 1-yard touchdown run.
The GCHS offense failed to find the end zone the rest of the way, and James Hammonds’ 48-yard TD run with 5:35 left in the game held up as the winning points.
For the Titans, Luke Waldrop was 13 for 26 in passing for 228 yards. Mason Johnson had four receptions for 74 yards. Octavious Griffin caught three passes for 63 yards, while Clyde Curry caught three for 22.
C.J. Miller paced the GCHS ground game with 108 yards on 16 carries.
Hewitt-Trussville opened the scoring at 8:44 of the first quarter with Payton Floyd’s 19yard touchdown pass to Rob Wright. Gadsden City responded with Miler’s 28-yard scoring run at 6:38.
The Titans took a 14-7 lead early in the second period on Waldrop’s 27-yard touchdown strike to Griffin, but the visitors tied it up when Hammond found the end zone for 16 yards out at 5:09.
The teams exchanged scored late in the third quarter. Waldrop’s 1-yard TD run made it 21-13 in favor of GCHS before Floyd’s 4-yard scoring run made it 21-21.
Johnson and Samuel Horton each finished with eight tackles, followed by Malik Woods with seven and Nehemiah Washington with six. Horton had two sacks, while DeAndre Kirkpatrick had an interception.
Gadsden City closes out the season next week at Vestavia Hills.