Spartans light up new scoreboard in win
MOUNTAIN BROOK -- There was confusion before Mountain Brook High School’s first play and a little bit of luck during it. For the rest, it was all Spartans.
Jackson Beatty caught a ball from John Colvin that, admittedly, should have been intercepted by a Huffman defensive back. He took the deflected pass 62 yards for a score. It was the start of a big night for the Class 6A No. 5 Spartans in its 48-7 win over Huffman in a Class 6A, Region 5 contest.
“I was really surprised,” Colvin said. “I was expecting a pick. I got hit, I looked up and saw he had the ball and I was pretty ecstatic.”
Prior to the play, the Spartans had to call timeout. That doesn’t happen often before the first play of the game, but head coach Chris Yeager took the blame, saying he had his players lined up the wrong way.
There wasn’t much else to complain about in the win, which was played for the first time with a new Daktronics scoreboard. The $400,000 video board is the largest at a high school on-campus stadium in the state, spanning 36.4 feet high and 46.8 feet wide.
Spartans players gave plenty of highlights. On the second play after a Huffman punt, Cole Gamble scored from 42 yards out. It was the sophomore’s first game action since getting injured early in the first game of the season. He finished with 84 yards on nine carries.
“He’s a running back like we have not had around here for a long, long time,” Yeager said. “Will Waldrop has played well since he’s been gone and so has Jack King. I feel like we’ve got three running backs we can go to. I thought the line was really solid and our tight end Carter Kelly did good, and our receivers did a fine job blocking.”
Mountain Brook (4-0, 2-0 in region) went ahead 21-0 on the third series when Waldrop scored from 16 yards out.
The Spartans took a 24-0 lead on a 24-yard field goal from Reed Harradine to start the second quarter. Huffman (1-3, 0-2) finally put together a sustained drive on its first second-quarter possession, scoring on an 8-yard pass from Mekail Alexander-Johnson to Jaquarius Sword, but the Spartans bounced right back. A 41-yard pass from Colvin to Jake Thompson set up George Cain’s 4-yard touchdown run.
Huffman went quickly down the field after that, trying to get some more points to end the second quarter, but Mountain Brook’s Braxton Dean intercepted a pass at his 5-yard line in the final seconds. He returned it to midfield and the Spartans had two chances to score, but a final pass was intercepted.
In the second half, Colvin threw a 35-yard touchdown pass to Sims Brown, John McMillan scored on a 26-yard interception return and Harradine kicked a 39-yard field goal.
“One of the biggest things tonight that probably gets overlooked is Reed Harradine kicking it into the end zone every time and making them go the long haul,” Yeager said. “That was big. We knew their running back (Makhi Hughes) was going to get his yards, so we had to make him go the long haul and earn everything he got.”
Colvin threw for 177 yards on the night, but did have two interceptions. Mountain Brook got interceptions from McMillan, Dean and Quinn Thomas.
Hughes did rush for 121 yards on 24 carries, but the Spartans’ ground attack put up 240 yards.
“I think this was probably our toughest opponent of the year, but we were really prepared,” Beatty said. “We’re trending upwards and playing a lot of good football as a team.”
Mountain Brook continues Region 5 play next week at Shades Valley.