After going 0-10 during the regular season, St. John Paul II (AL) has opted to forgo its opening postseason game against Briarwood Christian (AL) and end its season.
Bn Thomas of AL.com reported on Monday, Nov. 3, that the Huntsville-area school's decision comes after it finished its season with a 21-17 loss to Danville (AL).
The school released a statement stating that the decision was made to ensure the safety and well-being of its players.The release states that they entered their regular season finale with just 22 players and after suffering six more injuries, would have only 16 available players for the game against Briarwood Christian. Earlier in the season, the two teams played with Briarwood Christian winning that game 56-7.
“While this
is an incredibly unfortunate situation that is entirely out of our control, the safety of our student-athletes must always come first,” the release states. “We deeply wish we could take the field this Friday, but we cannot compromise the health and safety of our young men. We extend our sincere apologies to Briarwood Christian School’s players, coaches and fans for the disruption to their schedule, and we thank our own school community for their understanding and continued support of our athletes.”
With St. John Paul II now done for the year, Briarwood Christian moves on to the second round of the Double-A division state tournament and will play the winner of Randolph vs. John Carroll. Briarwood Christian beat each of those teams earlier in the year in blowout fashion.
St. John Paul II will look to forget this year as quickly as they can.
The Falcons lost by double digits in all but one of their games, the regular season finale. They were outscored 84-440 losing by an average of 35.6 points and gave up an average of 44 points per game.
As a whole, the program has struggled to find wins in the 2020's with its last winning season coming in 2019. This year marks the second time during that stretch that the Falcons have gone winless as they also did the same in 2021.
Follow Sports Reporter Joe Spears on X at @joe_spears7 or via email: JSpears@usatodayco.com. For additional high school sports coverage, be sure to follow USA TODAY High School Sports on Instagram and X.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Winless Alabama high school football team makes playoffs, forfeits first game
