By Josh Bean | For the AHSAA
AHSAA PHOTO | David Holtsford
Coosa Christian (13-2) scored two touchdowns in the final 3:20, rallying to win the school’s first state championship 29-22 Friday, Dec. 5, in the AHSAA Super 7 Class 2A state finals at Protective Stadium.
Mac Long scored the game-winner on a 20-yard touchdown run with 22 seconds remaining.
“I’m happy with the way we executed at the end,” Coosa
Christian coach Rush Propst said.
Propst captured his sixth AHSAA state title as a head coach and eighth overall, winning five at Hoover over a seven-year stretch from 2000-06 and two more at Colquitt County (Ga.), as the Conquerors (13-2) from Gadsden end the season with a 13-game winning streak.
Even Propst said “it looked bleak” in the fourth quarter after Lanett’s Nadarious Morgan scored on a 67-yard run to give the Panthers (12-3) a 22-14 lead with 5:30 to go.
Coosa Christian then drove 55 yards in six plays with Kylen Johnson scoring on a 4-yard run with 3:20 left in the final period. He then threw the 2-point pass to LJ Mostella to knot the game at 22-all. Coosa forced a punt on the ensuing drive, but Johnson suffered a leg injury and did not return.
Coosa then drove 55 yards on five plays. Long ran four straight read option plays with running back Joseph East. On the fifth play, he pulled the ball out of East’s belly and raced around left end for the game-winner.
“I finally got them to bite really good, and I was able to
score,” Long said.
Johnson was named MVP. He was carried by two linemen to accept the award during post-game ceremonies. He finished with 64 yards on 20 carries with touchdown runs covering 2 and 4 yards. He also caught a 26-yard touchdown
pass.
Morgan led Lanett with 19 carries for 185 yards and TD runs of 2 and 67 yards. Fred Broughton scored on a 1-yard run and completed 10-of-21 passes for 126 yards. Jever Valbuena kicked a 23-yard field goal to make it 15-14 in the second half.
East led Coosa with 11 tackles, while TJvBrooks led Lanett with 10 stops.
Lanett felt one win shy of winning its first state title since 2019.
“It’s a tough one,” Lanett coach R.J. McDonald said. “The boys fought and played hard. They played resilient all year long. … We just had to execute a little bit better.”
The 30th Super 7 concludes Friday with the Class 6A championship game between Saraland (13-0) and Clay-Chalkville (14-0).
All games have been televised by the AHSAA TV Network to every home in the state over the Alabama Public Television network and is being live video streamed over the NFHS Network subscriber-based platform. WOTM TV’s
Vince Earley is the executive producer.
