Wildcats fall to Auburn in regular season finale

The Enterprise Wildcats hit the road on Oct. 22 and dropped a 42-28 loss to the Auburn Tigers in the 2021 regular season finale.

The Wildcats struggled to stop the Tiger offense all night, in fact Auburn scored on six of its seven drives with the only drive the Tigers didn’t score on being the final drive of the night where they ran out the clock. Enterprise’s offense managed to score on 4-of-8 drives but it wasn’t enough. The Wildcats also forced a fumble on a punt that gave them an extra possession.

Auburn marched right down on the field on its opening possession and scored on a 28-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Clyde Pittman to receiver Bakari Dailey with 9:06 left in the first quarter to go up 7-0.

Enterprise needed just three offensive plays to answer as sophomore Amare Griffin exploded through the Tiger defense for a 57-yard touchdown run with 7:41 left in the opening period. Wyatt Darlington then cashed in on a 2-point conversion to give Enterprise its only lead of the game 8-7.

On Auburn’s next drive, a fired up Wildcat defense forced the Tigers into a third-and-15 after DJ Buckner and Marzavious Reed dropped Auburn ball carriers in the backfield on back-to-back plays. It did not matter, however, as Auburn gained 19 yards on third down and then Pittman raced 49 yards on the next play to give Auburn a 14-8 lead with 5:39 left in the first quarter.

After driving to midfield on its next possession, the Enterprise offense bogged down and was forced to punt. Dailey returned the punt 45 yards to the Enterprise 26 and two plays later Pittman connected with Dailey on a 21-yard scoring pass. Auburn extended its lead to 21-8 with just 38 seconds left in the first half.

Enterprise went three-and-out on its next drive but Dailey muffed the Wildcat punt and Tomorris Green covered the fumble inside Auburn territory. Enterprise drove inside the Auburn red-zone but again bogged down and Griffin was stopped short on a fourth-and-six.

Auburn drove inside the Enterprise 1-yard line late in the half when the Wildcats managed to forced a fourth-and-goal after JT Hooten and Jackson Blount stuffed Auburn runners on back-to-back plays on the goal line. Auburn’s Xavier Allen scored on fourth down, however, and extended the lead to 28-8 going into halftime.

As the third quarter began, Enterprise put together some more momentum as Mykel Johnson scored on a 21-yard run. The PAT was no good as Auburn’s lead was cut to 28-14 with 8:36 left in the third quarter.

That momentum was short lived as Auburn found the end zone once again on a 10-yard run from Amarion Warren to put Auburn ahead 35-14 with 5:22 left in the third quarter.

Griffin scored again on a 14-yard run to cut Auburn’s lead to 35-21 with 36 seconds left in the third quarter. Auburn extended the lead back out to 42-21 on an 18-yard run from Allen with 7:51 left in the game.

Johnson scored on a 1-yard run to cut Enterprise’s lead to 42-28 but there was less than two minutes remaining and the Tigers ran the clock out on their next possession.

Enterprise rolled up 359 yards of offense – all of it on the ground – and Auburn netted 388 yards of offense. The Tigers, however, were nearly perfectly balanced gaining 207 yards on the ground and 181 yards passing.

A positive for Enterprise was the cut down on penalties. After being penalized more than 10 times in three straight games, Enterprise was hit with just three penalties against Auburn. In the first seven games of the season, the Enterprise defense gave up more than 30 points just once, but has given up more than 30 points in three straight games to end the regular season.

Griffin led Enterprise with 173 yards and two touchdowns on 19 carries, while Johnson ran for 120 yards and two touchdowns on 18 carries. Both running backs managed to eclipse the 1,000-yard mark on the season in the loss as they become the first pair of Enterprise backs to run for 1,000 yards in the same season.

Reed led the Enterprise defense with nine tackles and a tackle-for-loss, while Eric Winters recorded six tackles.

Auburn’s Allen rushed for 92 yards and two touchdowns on 12 carries. Pittman completed all 11 of his pass attempts for 181 yards and two touchdowns along with 64 yards and a touchdown on just three carries. Dailey caught six passes for 114 yards and two touchdowns.

Enterprise is off next week but will hit the road again on Nov. 5 against Fairhope as the opening round of the Class 7A playoffs get underway.