Bayside Academy rallied back from a halftime deficit to beat Montgomery Academy 30-13 and advance in the 3A Division playoffs on Friday night.

Despite a slow start for Bayside Academy in the first half, highlighted by two early turnovers, the Admirals would score 23 unanswered points in the second half to stay alive in the playoffs.

“I think it was great for our team to have a game like that,” Bayside Academy head coach Barrett Trotter said following their win. “Proud of our guys. We really haven't had a battle like that where we’ve had to come from behind and that’s a good team we just played, but our kids never blinked and they came, showed up in the second half and readily in the second quarter; we were rolling and just came ready to play. We never blinked, and they just kept fighting. We talked about it being a four quarter game all week long.”

ADMIRALS COME FROM BEHIND TO BEAT EAGLES

Montgomery Academy wasted no time, recovering two turnovers from Bayside in the first quarter with a fumble and an interception. The Eagles would strike first with a rushing touchdown from quarterback Reid McBride to make it 7-0.

In the second quarter, Montgomery Academy would increase their lead with another touchdown, but the ensuing kick came up short, making it 13-0 for the Eagles. Bayside Academy would finally respond with a touchdown from athlete Bo Miller to trail 13-7.

Bayside Academy prevented the Eagles from scoring despite an 8-minute drive to get the ball back. Despite decent field position, the Admirals were unable to score before the clock ran out, heading to the locker room down 13-7 at halftime.

Coming out of the half, Bayside Academy would take their first lead of the game with a gutsy fourth down touchdown pass to edge Montgomery Academy 14-13 in the fourth quarter. After that, the Admirals would never trail again.

In a wild sequence of events in the fourth quarter, Bayside Academy got intercepted at the goal line, only for the Admiral defense to come out and get a safety, resulting in a 16-13 lead for the admirals. Bayside Academy would then score another touchdown on yet another fourth down pass to go up 23–13.

With Montgomery Academy now down ten points, the Eagles were picked off by Bayside Academy's Noah Cain, with Admiral running back Brennen Yamane taking it 85-yards to the endzone to make it 30-13. The Eagles were intercepted again with a tipped pass at the line of scrimmage, and the Admirals would run the clock out to secure the win.

“We just started slow,” Coach Trotter said. “Obviously, we had two turnovers. You’re not going to win games when you have turnovers and they’re a good offense, so they went down and scored, but you know, our kids just rallied in the halftime in the locker room. There was really never any doubt that we were going to come back and win this game and 30 unanswered points I think says it all.”

MOVING FORWARD

With the win, Bayside Academy will now face Southside-Selma next in the 3A semifinals on Friday, Nov. 28 at 7 p.m.

“Our kids are going to keep working just like they have all year long,” Coach Trotter said. “We’re going to prepare for each week the exact same and we’re going to work our tails off as coaches and players and be ready to go.”