ARAB, Ala. — The Arab Knights hosted the Albertville Aggies to start off the 2021 high school football season. It was senior night for Arab and they dominated from start to finish as they ended up shutting out Albertville 35-0.
Arab’s defense allowed one first down on their opening drive before forcing the Aggies to punt. The Knights started out the game running the ball as Hayden O’Reilly picked up a first down on the second play of their opening drive, then Ed Johnson connected with Wesley Johnson for 37 and five yards, respectively. The running game wore down the Albertville defense as Ed Johnson picked up a key first down on fourth down, then he finished off the 13-play, 75-yard drive with a five-yard run to give the Arab a 7-0 lead with 4:46 remaining in the opening quarter.
After picking up a first down early in the drive, the Aggies started to go backwards as a bad snap, which was later followed by back-to-back penalties, forced them to punt. The Knights started their next drive at the 20-yard line and this time, it took them just three plays to reach the end zone as Ed Johnson found a hole on the right side and wasn’t going to be denied as his 72-yard run gave Arab a 14-0 lead with 11:39 remaining in the first half. A quick three-and-out gave the ball back to the Knights and a huge 57-yard run by Hayden O’Reilly led to a five-yard touchdown run by Ed Johnson to increase the Arab lead to 21-0.
The Knights forced another three-and-out and their running game continued to wear down the Aggies defense as Drake Franklin, Ed Johnson, and Drew Puccio picked up some huge yards and first downs during the drive. Ed Johnson finished off the drive with a four-yard touchdown scamper, his fourth of the night, to help push the Arab lead to 28-0 with 2:48 remaining in the first half. Neither team found the end zone again the rest of the half as the Knights went into the locker room with a commanding 28-0 lead.
Arab stuck to their game plan to start out the second half as Franklin, O’Reilly, and Ed Johnson continued to gain some tough yards and some key first downs. Ed Johnson completed three passes during the drive for 22 yards and O’Reilly helped cap off the 15-play, 79-yard drive with an 11-yard touchdown to make it a 35-0 lead for the Knights. Both squads played their second-team players the rest of the way and Arab kicked off the new season with a 35-0 shutout of Albertville.
Ed Johnson finished with 126 yards on 16 carries and four touchdowns. He also completed 7/9 passes for 82 yards. O’Reilly finished with 86 rushing yards and a touchdown while Franklin added 58 more on the ground. Wes Johnson finished with five receptions for 65 yards.
Arab will travel to Guntersville next Friday night looking to start the season 2-0.
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