The new face of the Alabama Independent School Association wears blue and sports three state championship rings in the last three years.
“You just kind of feel like this is what you want your program to be,” Chambers Academy coach Jason Allen said. “You work hard to achieve things but you never know if you’re going to win any championships.”
Allen’s team churned out 292 yards on the ground and its defense dominated Lowndes Academy in a 32-14 victory in the AISA Class AAA championship game at Cramton Bowl on Thursday night.
“It was a heck of a night for our team and our program,” Allen said. “We capped it off with a state championship. I couldn’t be more proud of this team and these kids. They’ve been a heck of a group to coach. We’ve talked all summer, since we won last year, that we wanted to three-peat.”
The Rebels held a potent Lowndes offense to 80 rushing yards, similar to the regular season meeting between the two teams, a 27-0 Chambers victory on Sept. 26.
“We thought we could throw the ball (this time), but we didn’t do a very good job of that to start with,” Lowndes coach James “Speed” Sampley said. “I probably overthought that and that’s my fault. We probably should have run it and given the ball to Jeremy (Hardy) as many times as we could.”
Hardy, one of AISA’s top running backs, managed 84 yards on 11 carries, accounting for both of the Rebels’ touchdowns with a 45-yard halfback pass to Ford Walker in the first quarter and a 29-yard run with 4:03 remaining for the game’s final points.
In between those two scores, the Lowndes offense managed just four first downs, struggling to find any consistency against the Chambers defense.
Chambers, meanwhile, had starting quarterback Hunter Andrews sidelined with an ankle injury less than four minutes into the game. In his place stepped eighth grader Cohen Hand, who promply ran 11 yards for a touchdown two plays later to break a scoreless tie.
“I didn’t bat an eye,” Allen said. “That kid, he’s tough. He’s prepared all year. His older brother, who was our quarterback, went down two weeks before the season with a torn ACL. It was a real struggle to figure out what we were going to do without him. Hunter Andrews came on (and) did a great job with our team. Then he goes down in the first quarter with an ankle injury. But I knew No. 11 (Hand), when he came in, he’s not scared of any moments.”
When Andrews returned in the third quarter, the Chambers offense resumed its march to the end zone, extending the lead with a pair of Peyton Yerta touchdown runs to give the program its fifth state championship, all in the last eight years.
“We love to work,” senior Eli Whorton said. “They always tell our class, ‘you’re going to be something special, you’ve got to get in the weight room and do what’s necessary to win games’ and that’s what we did this summer.”
AISA CHAMPIONSHIPS
AA: Chambers Academy 32, Lowndes Academy 14
A: Abbeville Christian 50, South Choctaw Academy 28
A: Macon East 34, Escambia Academy 14
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