No. 10 Arab upsets 7th ranked Guntersville

Arab, AL – The 10th ranked Arab Knights earned their first victory since 2012 over arch-rival Guntersville (6-2) Friday night at the Arab City Schools SportsPlex.  The 34-20 victory also secured a Marshall County championship and Class 5A, Region 7 title for the 8-1 Knights.  

Lee Ozmint’s squad locked up their second region championship in program history and the Knights’ first since 1993.   Arab will have a chance to match a school record of nine wins in a season Friday night with a home win against the Hazel Green Trojans.  

An early Arab fumble handed the ball to the Wildcats right out of the gate but the stingy Knights defense held giving the ball back to the Arab offense.  Drake Franklin capped a 71 yard, 11 play drive with a touchdown scamper from inside the Guntersville five yard line to put Arab on top 7-0 midway through the first quarter.  

The Knights recovered the ensuing kick deep in Wildcat territory, converting the Guntersville miscue into a 26 yard Will Caneer field goal to go up 10-0.  After a pair of back-and-forth turnovers, the Wildcats nailed a field goal of their own to pull within a score at the beginning of the second quarter.  

Early in the second, Arab’s John Ray Wilks picked off a Street Smith pass and bolted 41 yards in the endzone to extend the Knight’s lead to 17-3 with nine minutes and change remaining in the first half.  Aiden Wooten split the uprights from 26 yards out as time expired to give the nights a commanding 20-3 advantage at the break.  

Arab picked up where they left off in the second half as Franklin scampered across the goal line for the second time putting the Knights up 27-3 early in the third period.  A few plays later Dylan Morrow intercepted a Guntersville throw returning it 34 yards for the Knights second pick-six of the night. 

Arab lead 34-3 with a quarter and a half remaining in the contest.  

The 7th ranked Wildcats fought back, scoring 17 points in the fourth quarter but it was too little, too late as the Knights held on to close out their region slate at 6-0.  

Arab quarterback Aidan Cox completed 11-of-14 passes on the night.  Franklin lead the Arabian Knight rushing attack with 160 yards on 28 attempts and scored a pair of touchdowns.  

The Knights close out the regular season Friday night as the welcome the 6A Hazel Green Trojans (4-4) to the SportsPlex.  Depending on the outcome of this week’s games, the Knights will either host the Ardmore Tigers (3-5), East Limestone Indians (3-5) or Brewer Patriots (3-5) in the first round of the Class 5A playoffs November 4th.