Spartans claim top spot in region following thrilling victory
TRUSSVILLE — About all the hoopla surrounding the “big three” football teams in Class 7A, Region 3, Mountain Brook High School head coach Chris Yeager says, “I think we need a recount.”
The defense of the seventh-ranked, unbeaten Spartans stuck to their game plan of holding host Hewitt-Trussville between the 20-yard lines and handed the No. 2 Huskies their first region loss in a 20-17 decision Friday night.
The win guarantees Mountain Brook a berth in the 7A playoffs.
It was the vaunted defense that turned the momentum in a big way late in the first half. With Hewitt-Trussville driving in the last two minutes and sitting with third-and-8 at the Mountain Brook 19-yard line, quarterback Paul Tyson was trying to connect with a teammate in the Spartans end zone when linebacker Clark Griffin picked off the pass just in front of the goal line, running it back to the 18-yard line.
Two plays later, Mountain Brook running back A.J. Gates took the ball from his own 20, headed toward the right sideline and turned upfield. He found a gap, and then he found space — lots and lots of space.
“I was ready for it, I was expecting it, and I did what I had to do to help the team,” Gates said.
The 80-yard score with 48 seconds left in the half put the Spartans up 17-7 and turned the tables on the Huskies in a major way.
From that point on, Mountain Brook’s defense did what they needed to keep Hewitt from taking that momentum back. The Huskies took the opening drive of the second half for nearly seven minutes all the way down to the Spartans 1, but Tyson couldn’t get the ball into the end zone and the hosts settled for a Parker Colburn 21-yard field goal.
On the following possession, Mountain Brook took a whopping eight minutes off the clock and settled for a 27-yard field goal from Atkins Roberts. That field goal would prove to be very important, as Hewitt took the ball 80 yards on its next drive, with an Armoni Goodwin 2-yard touchdown run cutting the Spartans lead to 20-17 lead midway through the final period.
That’s when quarterback Strother Gibbs directed a time-consuming drive from his own 20, benefitting from a pair of Huskies personal fouls, one of which came on a third-down play in which the Spartans had failed to reach the line to gain. That drive was working well until the 12th play, when Gibbs fumbled the ball away in a scrum on the Hewitt 27 with 1:41 left to play.
With no timeouts left, Tyson tried to work the sidelines down to field goal range for Colburn, but misfired on third and fourth down to give Mountain Brook the victory.
In addition to the game-winner, Roberts put the first points of the game on the board for the visitors with a 28-yard field goal on the opening drive.
“We were just patient, letting them run between the 20s,” Yeager said of his defense. “Once they got within the 20s, they ran out of field and speed.”
Hewitt coach Josh Floyd was succinct: “We didn’t really deserve to win. We had a ton of penalties and had stopped them twice on their last drive. We’ve just got to play better.”
Gates finished the game with 144 yards on 16 carries and the touchdown. Sam Higgins scored Mountain Brook’s other touchdown on a 24-yard run early in the second quarter; he totaled 52 yards on six carries. Gibbs also ran for 103 yards on 16 rushes, despite two sacks. He was 2-of-5 passing for 16 yards with one interception.
Tyson threw 19 completions on 27 attempts for 171 yards with one interception for the Huskies. Ja’Varrius Johnson had seven receptions for 74 yards. Goodwin accounted for both of his team’s touchdowns, running 14 times for 99 yards.
“They believed in this system, and they believed in one another,” Yeager said. “They have so far exceeded my expectations. They exceeded all of our expectations — talk about an unlikely motley crew. They love the game and they love one another.”
Mountain Brook (7-0, 5-0 region) returns home next week to play Thompson, while Hewitt (6-2, 5-1) hosts Tuscaloosa County.
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