Spartans pitch shutout in region opener
ADAMSVILLE -- The Mountain Brook High School football team pitched a shutout on the road Friday night, defeating Minor 28-0 in the Spartans’ Class 6A, Region 5 opener.
Behind a stifling defense that allowed just 261 total yards, forced six punts, two turnovers and blocked two field goal attempts, the Spartans picked up their second consecutive road victory to improve to 2-1 on the season.
“I feel like we’ve gotten a little better every week,” said Mountain Brook head coach Chris Yeager. “We had to replace 10 guys on defense, but you know they’re really starting to establish an identity of playing very physical, fast, and getting to the ball.”
Mountain Brook’s game got off to an inauspicious start when senior quarterback John Cooper’s pass was intercepted by Ahmir White on the third play from scrimmage, giving Minor the ball on the visitors’ 36-yard line. The Spartana defense stood tall, however, and held to the Tigers to a 37-yard field goal attempt, which was subsequently blocked by a leaping defender.
The Mountain Brook special teams would block another Minor field goal attempt late in the second quarter, keeping the home side scoreless on its only two threating offensive possessions of the half.
“If Minor comes away with points in the red zone here early in the game, we’d have had a ballgame,” Yeager said. “The defense made big plays and was really stingy down [in the red zone]. When your team is doing that, that’s a sign you’re headed in the right direction, so I was really pleased with that.”
The Mountain Brook offense quickly rewarded the efforts of the defense three plays after the first blocked field goal, when senior running back Cole Gamble, who finished with 148 yards on the ground, scampered 78 yards for the game’s opening touchdown.
“We were letting the [Minor] safeties dictate what we were doing [offensively],” Yeager said. “When they had two safeties back, that’s when we ran the ball and that’s when Cole had the long run. One of receivers blocked the safety and there was no one left after that.”
Gamble added another touchdown with 8:39 left in the second quarter, crossing the goal line from a yard out to give the Spartans a 14-0 lead at the halftime break.
Coming out of the locker room for the second half, the defense for Mountain Brook continued where it left off from the opening 24 minutes, forcing the hosts to punt on the first drive of the third quarter. Mountain Brook then tacked on two more touchdowns on its next two drives to put the game out of reach for Minor.
“We played a lot cleaner in the second half,” Yeager said. “Right now the teams that start to separate themselves are the teams that are playing cleaner ball [in the second half].”
Offensively, Cooper crucially linked up with fellow senior Hudson Young twice on the Spartans’ first drive out of the break, first hitting the receiver for a 43-yard play before finding him again on a 13-yard touchdown pass to make it 21-0.
Mountain Brook’s final touchdown of the game came again through the air from the arm of Cooper, but this time it was senior receiver Clark Sanderson who made the catch from 7 yards out.
“[Minor] has a good defense, but I felt like we had more explosive plays than they did, more than we had in the last two games,” said Yeager. “That’s just from guys playing through the whistle and finishing plays.”
Cooper finished the game 10-of-16 for 160 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions.
“Right now I think [the players] are getting more relaxed and when you’re relaxed you play faster and you enjoy it,” Yeager said. “There something fun about this game of traveling in packs, making plays in groups with your buddies. That’s what’s enjoyable and rewarding about it. I feel like we’re coming around and we’re starting to do that, and that’s what I want us to continue to do.”
Mountain Brook will travel to Woodlawn for its next region matchup next Thursday.
Check out all of our high school football photos from this week here.