About Our Ads Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Oct. 31—TRINITY — Six years ago, Drew Phillips was a rookie taking his first head coaching job at West Morgan.
With a 35-13 win over Cullman on Friday, Phillips became the school's all-time winningest football coach, with a record of 58-13. He passes Pierre Coggins, who went 57-32 from 2002-09 with three double-digit win seasons.
"I can't tell you what an honor this is because there's been some really good coaches come through here," Phillips said. "There's no way I'm here right now if it wasn't for the people around me — from the administration, to my assistant coaches and, most importantly, our football players."
West Morgan opened the season in August with a disappointing 22-point loss to Class 5A Athens. On Friday, against another Class 5A team, the Rebels had a chance to show how much they've improved since then, and they did just that with a 22-point win over the Bearcats.
"We've come a long way and overcame a lot of adversity," Stover said. "We put in the work, got our offense right, and the people that doubted us, said we couldn't beat bigger schools, were proven wrong tonight."
Stover finished the game with 14 carries for 115 yards and two touchdowns, while Jabari Wiggins added 23 carries for 100 yards and two scores and Jordan Taylor had six carries. Quarterback Brantley Phillips was 8-for-17 passing for 69 yards and a 17-yard touchdown to Will Smith.
But it wasn't a perfect game for the Rebels.
Despite holding Cullman to just 150 yards of offense, the Bearcats took an early 6-0 lead and later, in the third quarter, cut West Morgan's advantage to 21-13 thanks to short fields from an interception and a muffed punt.
A blocked punt gave Cullman a chance to tie the game in the fourth quarter, but the Rebels forced the turnover on downs and later scored 14 unanswered points to seal the win.
"That's just our team's mentality. We respond," Phillips said. "We stuttered and let them hang around when they shouldn't. But even through our mistakes, our attitude didn't change. We stayed the course and got the job done, which is what our guys have done all year."
West Morgan improves to 7-3 on the year and will host Moody next week in the first round of the Class 4A state playoffs.
After a disappointing second-round exit last year, the Rebels are looking to rebound with a deep playoff run.
"Everybody has to stay together. If we play together and don't break apart, we'll win," Stover said.
— caleb.suggs@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2395. Twitter @CalebSuggs2
Source: Sports
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