Spartans can't get going against James Clemens
MADISON – Mountain Brook’s offense was shut out for more than 46 minutes of play Friday as the James Clemens Jets ran away with a 51-14 Homecoming win at Madison City Schools Stadium. The loss is the Spartans’ fourth straight, the first 1-4 start since the early 1990s.
“We’re used to starting faster. We’ve played from behind before and been good again. I think the whole team expected that, but tonight we dug a hole and kept digging,” Spartan head coach Chris Yeager said. “We’re in week five, and you want to improve from week to week … We just need to improve at a faster rate than we’re improving right now.”
Mountain Brook was held to one first down in the opening half, but finished the night with 191 yards and six first downs. Unfortunately for the Spartans, only one of those series, the last, resulted in points on offense. Four turnovers and a blocked punt plagued Mountain Brook through the night.
James Clemens, which had 319 yards in the game, marched 67 yards on 13 plays to open the game, capping the drive with a 31-yard field goal by Will Grochowski. Two possessions later, Heath Burchfield hit Marquese Mitchell on a 6-yard play action pass to make it 10-0 with two minutes left in the first quarter. The Jets found the end zone again on a Maceo Booker 8-yard run to start the second quarter, but Zac Carroll blocked the extra point to make it 16-0.
JC was nearly unstoppable in the second quarter, scoring on a 65-yard pass from Burchfield to Immanuel Wilder with 8:25 to play in the first half, 23-0. Burchfield finished the night with 266 yards on 22-of-33 passing through three quarters of play. Wilder had 93 yards on six catches.
Sims Herron, who led MBHS with 67 yards receiving, returned the ensuing kickoff 95 yards to put Mountain Brook on the board, 23-7. But Wilder returned the Spartan’s kickoff 73 yards to help set up another Booker touchdown run. Booker finished the night with 111 yards of total offense and three touchdowns on nine carries and nine receptions.
James Clemens made it 37-7 after Monty Rice recovered a blocked punt in the end zone with 2:49 to play in the second quarter. Mountain Brook caught a special teams break of its own just before the half, taking over at midfield after a bad snap on a fake punt. However, Rice intercepted a Connor Adair pass to help end the half with the Jets up 37-7.
Mountain Brook shutout the Jets’ offense in the third quarter, but gave up two pick-six touchdowns to Kyriq McDonald. The first pick-six, a 100-yard corner-to-corner score, came on the goal line after the Spartans found the Jets red zone for the first time down to the 10. McDonald had 123 yards on the two interception returns for touchdowns.
McKee Brown, who pounded the ball 26 times during the night for the Spartans, added Mountain Brook’s only offensive score with 1:35 to play on a 9-yard touchdown run to make it 51-14.
Connor Adair was 7-for-17 for 82 yards and four interceptions, while sophomore QB Hamp Sisson made a brief appearance in the second half, completing all four passes for 33 yards.
Joe Donald and Drew Smith led the Spartans’ defense with 11 and 10 tackles, respectively, while Chandler Cox and Will Wetzler had eight apiece. Carroll followed with seven stops and Butler Willbanks had five tackles and two sacks.
Michael Sharpley and John Jenkins led the Jets’ defense with five tackles each.
The Spartans (1-4, 0-3) stays on the road Oct. 2 with a trip to Northport to take on Class 7A, Region 3 opponent Tuscaloosa County (0-5, 0-3). Both teams are looking for their first region victory of the season, but Yeager isn’t letting Tuscaloosa County’s record change how he prepares to reenter region play.
“My focus right now is on Mountain Brook. They’re a good football team. They have good athletes. This region is not very forgiving,” Yeager said. “We need to bounce back and see who can continue to play and who can bounce back. We’re both in similar situations and one is going to make a turn at the middle of the season.”