Panthers just don’t quit: Southside overcomes adversity to advance to semifinals

Published 12:14 am Saturday, November 23, 2024

By Brent Maze

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Charles Moody had one of the coldest showers of his life on Friday night at Southside High School.

“Oh it’s super cold,” Moody said. “Hey, it’s the best kind of cold.”

The reason for that ice bath was because Southside is uncharted territory after rallying from a 10-point deficit in the second half to defeat Bayside Academy 26-24 in the Class 3A quarterfinals.


Southside (11-2), who won their first ever third-round playoff game, will now travel to Houston Academy in Dothan on Nov. 29 for the Class 3A semifinals and a chance to earn a berth to the Super 7 in Birmingham.

The rise of Southside

Moody said a win like this one is the culmination of the program he’s wanting to build at Southside.

“This is the thing I always talk about. I don’t want a good team or a great team. I want a great program. So hopefully this is the beginning of something special, which this is not the beginning. Kids before this had built the foundation, kids before this have built the culture,” Moody said.

“These kids understand certain things they gotta do. They start practice every day before I even get there; they know exactly what they are supposed to do. They do it, they hit the weight room hard every day. And this is just a great group of guys and we hope that trickles down through our program all the way into our middle school.”

First half

Southside and Bayside Academy played to tie through the first 23:57 of the game.

Bayside took advantage of an interception near the goal line and turned it into a 90-yard touchdown to take a 7-0 lead.

Southside answered on the ensuing possession with a long drive ending with a passing touchdown. The try for 2 failed, but the lead was cut to 7-6.

Bayside took advantage of another turnover to take a 14-6 lead, Southside had the answer again and tied the game on a touchdown followed by a 2-point conversion.

The middle two plays

But the final play of the first half and the first play of the second half gave Bayside its 10-point cushion.

The Admirals (9-2) made a 38-yard field goal as time expired before the horn. Then they ran the opening play into the end zone from 55 yards out to take a 24-14 lead.

From that point on, the Panther defense only allowed two first downs the rest of the game.

“We’ve got resilience,” Moody said. “They don’t quit. Like they keep fighting. They don’t never quit. And they’re what I love about these guys.“

The Panthers had a couple of drives in the third quarter end with an interception and a turnover on downs in Bayside territory.

The rally

But after an Admiral three-and-out near the end the third quarter, Southside finally put together a 14-play, 96-yard drive aided by a late hit out of bounds penalty.

First, LaTreyveon Davis connected with Cedrick Simmons on a third-and-12 for 16 yards to move the ball into Bayside territory. Then, Davis took a big out of bounds after a 10-yard run that knocked him out of the game for a couple of drives.

Derick Smith ran the ball for nine and four yards setting up 290-pound offensive lineman Javien Gipson for a 1-yard touchdown. The run for two failed, but Southside cut the lead to 24-20 with 10:34 remaining in the game.

‘Y’all get a stop’

After being forced to punt on fourth-and-28, it looked like Bayside might just try to play keep away by running the ball. However, they attempted a jump pass, which was intercepted by Smith 4:54 left in the game.

The Panthers unfortunately turned it back over on an interception two plays later. But Moody knew they would find a way to win.

“I just said, y’all get a stop, and we’re gonna score,” Moody said.”That simple. That’s it.”

Sure enough, that’s what the defense did. The Panthers knocked the ball loose from the Admiral runner, and Amadrion Smith pounced on the ball at the Bayside 37-yard line with 3:47 to play.

Davis shook off the earlier injury and threw a jump ball to the Smith, the Auburn commit, for a 27-yard gain to the 10-yard line.

Jaibrien Gresham then did the rest. He took the direct snap two times, gaining seven yards and then three yards for the touchdown. The 2-point try failed, but Southside had its first lead of the ball game with 2:53 left in the game.

Southside turned up the pressure on the final Admiral drive. Smith got a sack on first down and then heavy pressure forced bad throws on the next three plays, as Southside took over from there.

As they took the final knee with four seconds to run out the clock, the Southside sideline erupted in jubilation.

Not done yet

While the ice bath felt great for Moody and the Panthers can celebrate something they’ve never done before, Moody said they’re not going to settle for just making it this far.

“It feels amazing (make it this far), but we gotta finish the deal,” Moody said. “We can’t get caught up in this. We gotta go back to work. I want my kids to enjoy tonight and tomorrow, it’s Sunday. I’m just going to enjoy it tonight. Tomorrow, I’m back here.”

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