Bibb County defeats Montgomery Academy 56-6 in opening round of AHSAA playoffs: Takeaways

Bibb County defeated Montgomery Academy 56-6 in the opening round of the Alabama High School Athletic Association Class 4A playoffs on Thursday night.

The Choctaws (10-1) advance to the second round of playoffs, where they will play the winner between Jacksonville and Bayside Academy next week. With the loss, Montgomery Academy (4-7) saw its season come to an end.

"I was very proud just of how our kids have done a great job coming in and preparing every week," Bibb County coach Matt Geohagan said. "This week was no different. I thought they were really locked in from the beginning. We were focused for the last two weeks. Great focus, great attention to detail, and I am just very proud of how our kids competed."

Here are three takeaways from the game.

Explosive Bibb County offense

The 56 points the Choctaws put up in the win is the highest number of points they have scored all season.

Five different Choctaws found the endzone in the win — including defensive lineman Xavier Rhine, who returned a fumble for a touchdown in the second quarter. Quarterback Jordan Leverette finished the night throwing for more than 100 yards and rushing for 53, accounting for four touchdowns — one rushing, three passing.

Jay Harris also had a big night for Bibb County, accounting for more than 100 yards on offense and scoring three touchdowns.

Turnovers big for Bibb County

In the last four games, the Bibb County defense has allowed a total of eight points. Thursday night was not much different, as the Choctaws only allowed Montgomery Academy to score six.

Turnovers were also big for the Choctaw defense. CJ Morrow came up with a pass deflection and interception, while Brayden Cash added an interception of his own and Lyndon Hood and Xavier Rhine both came up with fumble recoveries, Rhine returning his for a touchdown.

The Bibb County defensive line — made up of Rhine, Trashun Griffin, Jacob Steele and Dylan Goode — also did a good job of applying pressure to the Eagles' offense, holding them to under 200 yards of total offense.

"We really believe in playing complementary football," Geohagan said. "Our defense has done a really good job of playing physical and being sound and making sure that the other team has to earn it."

The one score the Choctaws defense allowed came with 2:52 remaining in the game, when Montgomery Academy's Parker Cook connected with Will Hardin for a 21-yard touchdown reception.

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Bright future ahead for Montgomery Academy

While the end result Thursday did not go the Eagles way, they have a bright future ahead of them.

Coach Ethan McBride, who completed his first season at the helm of the Montgomery Academy team, led the Eagles to a 4-7 finish overall and the No. 4 spot in 4A-Region 2. The Eagles will lose about eight seniors to graduation and return much of their squad next season. They also will most likely jump back down to Class 3A, after being competitively bounced up to Class 4A in 2022 following a state championship appearance in 2021.

"We've overcome a lot of adversity," McBride said. "We are a young team, very young. We've got eight seniors and probably 14 sophomores and freshman and underclassmen that are contributing. The future is very, very bright."

Anna Snyder covers high school sports and University of Alabama recruiting for The Tuscaloosa News. Reach her at asnyder@gannett.com. Follow her on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, @annaesnyder2

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: AHSAA football: Bibb County's defeats Montgomery Academy 56-6